SWS: 2.9 million Filipino families still hungry in Q3
MANILA, Philippines — A new poll showed that 11.3% of Filipino families or an estimated 2.9 million experienced “involuntary hunger” moving into the third quarter of 2022.
The survey, the first of its kind conducted under the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., showed that people who reported that their family experienced hunger and did not have anything to eat at least once in the past three months barely moved from the last poll done in June.
The SWS said the 11.3% hunger rate is the sum of 9.1% who experienced “moderate hunger” — or those who experienced hunger “only once” or “a few times” — and 2.2% who experienced “severe hunger” — or those who experienced it “often” or “always.”
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Those who reported to have experienced moderate hunger slightly dropped from 9.4% in June, while those who reported to have experienced severe hunger increased by 0.1 point from 2.1%.
Metro Manila: Highest incidence of hunger
The highest incidence of hunger is in Metro Manila, where 16.3% of families or roughly 558,000 said they experienced this, followed by Mindanao at 15.3%, Balance Luzon at 9.6% and the Visayas at 7%.
The SWS said hunger reported in their latest survey is the highest in 25 out of the 99 polls they have conducted since July 1998.
Hunger in Metro Manila rose by 1.6 points from 14.7% in June, while it also rose 1.3 points in the Visayas and Mindanao from 5.7% and 14%, respectively.
Meanwhile, in Balance Luzon or the rest of Luzon excluding Metro Manila, hunger fell by 2.3 points from 11.9%.
Moderate hunger in Metro Manila fell to 10.7% from 11.3%, but severe hunger rose to 5.7% from 3.3%. In Mindanao, moderate hunger and severe hunger rose to 12.3% from 12%, and 3% from 2%, respectively.
Moderate hunger in the Visayas rose to 6.3% from 5%, while severe hunger remained at 0.7%. Meanwhile, in Balance Luzon moderate hunger and severe hunger fell to 8.1% from 9.4% and 1.5% from 2.5%, respectively.
The SWS said overall hunger dropped among those who rated themselves as “non-poor” to 6.7% from 8.1%, while it increased to 16% from 15.3% among those who rated themselves as poor.
Meanwhile, overall hunger slid to 7.4% from 7.8% among the “non-food poor” and hardly moved among those who identified as food poor as it saw a marginal increase to 19% from 18.9%.
The survey was based on face-to-face interviews of 1,500 adults nationwide, with 300 each from Metro Manila, Visayas and Mindanao, and 600 from Balance Luzon. It was held on September 29 to October 2.
The margin of error for national percentages is ±2.5%, while it is ±5.7% each for Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao, and ±4.0% for Balance Luzon. — Xave Gregorio
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