MANILA, Philippines — The proportion of Filipino families who experienced involuntary hunger declined in the fourth quarter of the previous year, a new Social Weather Stations survey showed.
The poll of 1,440 adults showed that 10.5 percent—around 2.4 million families—suffered from involuntary hunger at least once in the past three months.
The latest hunger rate was down by 2.8 percentage points from the 13.3 percent or an estimated 3.1 million families in September 2018.
Broken down, the number of Filipino households who experienced moderate hunger fell by 1.7 points from 10.6 percent in the third quarter to 8.9 percent or approximately 2.1 million families in December.
Those who suffered from severe hunger also went down by 1.3 points from 2.8 percent in September to 1.5 percent—around 354,000 families—in December.
Moderate hunger refers to those who experienced hunger “only once” or “a few times” in the last three months, while severe hunger pertains to those who experienced it “often” or “always” in the last three months.
Those who did not state their frequency of hunger were classified under moderate hunger, the polling firm said.
Hunger incidence in Mindanao decreased in Mindanao by 10 points from 18.3 percent in the third quarter to 9.2 percent or around 975,000 families in the fourth quarter.
Fewer families in Balance Luzon also experienced hunger from 12.7 percent in September to 9.7 or approximately one million households in December.
But hunger incidence in Visayas and Metro Manila rose by three points and one point, respectively. In Visayas, 9.2 percent—around 411,000 families—suffered from involuntary hunger in the last quarter from 6 percent in the third quarter.
Quarterly hunger in Metro Manila increased by one point from 17.3 percent in September to 18.3 percent in December.
That yielded an average hunger rate of 10.8 percent for 2018. This was 1.5 points below the 12.3 percent in 2017 and the lowest annual average rate since 7.0 percent in 2003.
The survey was conducted from December 16 to 19 using face-to-face interviews. It has sampling error margins of ±2.6 percent for national percentages, and ±5 percent each for Balance Luzon, Metro Manila, Visayas and Mindanao