3 million families experienced hunger in past three months —SWS

An estimated three million or 11.8% of Filipino families have experienced involuntary hunger—being hungry and not having anything to eat—at least once in the past three months, according to a poll.

The total, in the survey conducted by Social Weather Stations from December 10 to 14, 2022, is slightly higher than the 11.3% or 2.89 million families who reported the same in a survey released in October 2022 and the 11.6% or 2.95 million families in June 2022.

It is, however, slightly lower than the 12.2% or 3.1 million families reported in April 2022.

The survey also revealed that hunger was mostly experienced in Mindanao with 12.7% of families, followed by Visayas at 12%, Metro Manila at 11.7%, and Balance Luzon at 11.3%.

According to the survey firm, the 0.5-point increase in overall hunger between October 2022 and December 2022 was due to increases in the Visayas and Balance Luzon, combined with decreases in Metro Manila and Mindanao.

The SWS said the incidence of hunger climbed by five points in Visayas from 7% or 336,000 families to 12% or 576,000 families compared to October 2022.

Severe hunger for 599,000 families

The survey revealed that the 11.8% hunger rate in December 2022 was the sum of 9.5% or 2.4 million families who experienced moderate hunger and 2.3% or 599,000 families who experienced severe hunger.

The SWS defines moderate hunger as those who experienced hunger “only once” or “a few times” in the last three months, while the severe hunger refers to those who experienced it “often” or “always” in the previous three months.

In the October 2022 survey, moderate hunger was at 9.1% or 2.3 million families, while severe hunger was at 2.2% or 573,000 families.

The survey was conducted nationwide using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults of 18 years old and above).

The SWS said the sampling error margins are ±2.5% for national percentages, ±5.7% each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao. — BM, GMA Integrated News