MANILA, Philippines — The number of Filipinos who experienced involuntary hunger at least once in the first quarter of the year increased to an estimated 3.1 million families, according to a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey released on Monday.
Results of the April 19 to 27 survey showed that 12.2 percent of the respondents said their families experienced being hungry in the past three months.
The figure was 0.4 point above the 11.8 percent or estimated three million families that experienced hunger based on the most recent survey conducted in December 2021, but 0.9 point below the 13.1 percent annual average for 2021.
The April 2022 survey showed that 9.3 percent of respondents said they experienced moderate hunger (up from 9.2 percent) and 2.9 percent suffered severe hunger (up from 2.6 percent).
The SWS said moderate hunger refers to those who experienced hunger “only once” or “a few times” in the last three months. Severe hunger refers to those who experienced it “often” or “always” in the last three months.
The survey showed that involuntary hunger rose in balance Luzon and Mindanao, while it fell among respondents in Metro Manila and the Visayas.
Involuntary hunger remains the highest among those in Metro Manila at 18.6 percent (from 22.8 percent), followed by Mindanao at 13.1 percent (from 12.2 percent), rest of Luzon at 11.7 percent (from 9.2 percent) and the Visayas at 7.8 percent (from 9.7 percent).
Based on the survey, some 17.6 percent of those who rated their families as poor experienced hunger in the past three months.
Involuntary hunger increased among those who rated their families as not poor (7.5 percent to 8.1 percent), as well as those identifying as not food-poor (7.6 percent to 7.9 percent) and food-poor (21 percent to 21.8 percent).
The April survey showed that 43 percent of the respondents rated their families as poor, 34 percent as borderline poor and 23 percent as not poor.
At least 31 percent of respondents rated their families as food-poor, defined as being poor based on the food they eat, 45 percent as borderline food-poor and 24 percent as not food-poor.
The survey had 1,440 adult respondents with a sampling margin of error at +/- 2.6 percent for the national percentages.