Philippines hunger rate rose to 11.8 percent in December 2021 —SWS

Around three million families across the country have experienced hunger due to lack of food at least once in the past three months, a fourth-quarter survey of Social Weather Station (SWS) showed.

According to the polling firm, the hunger rate in the Philippines rose to 11.8 percent in December 2021 —  1.8 percent higher than the recorded 10 percent in September of the same year.

It is still lower than the reported 16.8 percent and 13.6 percent in May and June, respectively, when the restrictions of movements are still strict due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“The resulting annual average Hunger rate for 2021 is 13.1 percent versus the record-high 21.1 percent for 2020. However, this is still above the 9.3 percent annual average for 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic,” the SWS said Friday.

The increased hunger incidence was due to its uptick in all areas in the country except Balance Luzon where it fell from 10.3 percent to 9.2 percent, SWS said.

Metro Manila reported the worst incidence in with 22.8 percent of families affected in December 2021 compared to September’s 14.0 percent. It was followed by Mindanao at 12.2 percent and the Visayas at 9.7 percent.

Of the figures, 9.2 percent or an estimated 2.3M families have experienced moderate hunger while 2.6 percent or 657, 000 families experienced severe hunger.

Moderate Hunger refers to those who experienced hunger “only once” or “a few times” in the last three months. Severe Hunger, meanwhile, refers to those who experienced it “often” or “always” in the last three months.

The December 2021 survey also found that 43 percent of Filipino families identified themselves as poor, 39 percent said they belong to the borderline poor while 19 percent said they are not poor. 

Conducted from December 12 to 16 2021, the non-commissioned survey was participated by 1,440 Filipino adults through face-to-face interviews. It has sampling error margins are ±2.6% for national percentages and ±5.2% for Balance Luzon, Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao. —NB, GMA News