SWS: Fewer hungry Filipino families in Q3 of 2019

MANILA, Philippines — The number of Filipino families experiencing involuntary hunger decreased in the third quarter of 2019, a Social Weather Stations survey suggests.

The poll, conducted from September 27 to 30, found that 9.1% or around 2.3 million families experienced involuntary hunger—hunger due to lack of food—at least once in the past three months.

The latest figure is a slight recovery from the 10% or around 2.5 million families who experienced involuntary hunger in the second quarter.

Those who experienced severe hunger—those who went hungry often or always—in the last three months slightly went up to 426,000 families (1.7%) in September from 320,000 families (1.3%) in June.

Meanwhile, the number of families who experienced moderate hunger—those who went hungry only once or a few times—decreased to 1.8 million households(7.4%) in the third quarter from 2.1 million (8.7%) in the second quarter.

The polling firm said the decrease in the national hunger rate is attributed to the declines in Metro Manila (from 520,000 families in June to 276,000 families in September) and Balance Luzon (from one million families to 893,000).

The number of households who experienced involuntary hunger in Visayas remains unchanged at 409,000, while there was an increase in Mindanao, now at 673,000 in the third quarter.

Hunger down among poor, rises slightly among non-poor

The polling firm also said that hunger rates among self-rated poor and self-rated food poor families fell in September.

There were 1.4 million self-rated poor families (14%) who experienced hunger in September from the 1.8 million (16.2%) in June, while there were 805,000 self-rated food poor families (17.3%) in the third quarter from 1.5 million (17.3%) in the second quarter.

This was, however, offset by the increase in hunger rates among self-rated non-poor families (from 664,000 families in June to 805,000 families in September) and among self-rated non-food poor families (from 985,000 families to 1.1 million families.)

The third quarter poll was conducted using face-to-face interviews of 1,800 adults. It has sampling error margin of ±2.3% for national percentages, ±4% each for Balance Luzon and Mindanao, and ±6% each for Metro Manila and the Visayas). — Gaea Katreena Cabico