Some 3.9 million Filipino families experienced hunger in the last quarter of 2013, though hunger was “generally steady” as the year ended, according to a poll taken by Social Weather Stations.
According to the poll, 18.1 percent of Filipino families interviewed, equivalent to 3.9 million families, claimed to have gone hungry at least once in the past three months.
The fourth quarter figures were “basically unchanged” from the 17.9 percent (3.85 million households) from the previous quarter.
All in all, average hunger in 2013 was at 19.5 percent, a slight improvement of 0.4 point over 19.9 percent in 2012.
The SWS poll was taken from December 11 to 16, using face-to-face interviews of 1,550 adults nationwide. It has sampling error margins of ±2.5 percent for national, ±4 percent for the Visayas and ±6 percent for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon and Mindanao.
Moderate, severe hunger
The SWS said moderate and severe hunger rates were constant in the fourth quarter.
Moderate hunger refers to those who went hungry “only once” or “a few times” in the last three months.
For the fourth quarter, 15.4 percent of respondents experienced moderate hunger, equivalent to some 3.3 million households. In September 15.3 percent were moderately hungry.
In 2013, the average moderate hunger rate was 15.9 percent, 0.3 higher than 15.6 percent in 2012.
Severe hunger, referring to those who experienced it “often” or “always,” was at 2.7 percent (583,000 families), a slight increase from 2.6 percent in September.
The average severe hunger rate for 2013 was 3.6 percent, 0.7 point below the 4.3 percent in 2012.
Geographical divisions
Overall hunger went up by a 6.7 percent in the Visayas to 17.5 percent (726,000 families). This brought the Visayaas’ full-year average 16.1 percent, 1.5 points higher than in 2012.
Moderate hunger rose 4.6 points in the Visayas to 14.3 percent, compared to September. The year’s average there was 14 percent.
Visayas severe hunger rose 1.9 points in the to 3.2 percent,
Meanwhile, overall hunger fell in Mindanao and Balance Luzon, and was unchanged in Metro Manila.
Hunger in Mindanao declined 2.6 percentage points to 19.7 percent, equivalent to about 965,000 families. This brought the full-year average to 22.1 percent, 4.3 points below figures in 2012.
Moderate hunger fell by four points compared to September, to 17.3 percent in Mindanao. This brought the 2013 average there to 18.8 percent.
Severe hunger rose 1.3 points in Mindanao to 2.3 percent.
In Balance Luzon, hunger fell to 15.7 percent (1.5 million families), with a 2013 average of 18.3 percent, or 0.5 percentage point higher than in 2012.
Moderate hunger stayed at 14 percent in Balance Luzon, with the full-year average there at 14.6 percent.
Meanwhile, sever hunger dipped by one point to 1.7 percent in Balance Luzon
Overall hunger remained at 24.3 percent in Metro Manila (711,000 families) during the survey period, with the 2013 average at 23.5 percent. This was 0.6 point higher than in 2012.
Metro Manila moderate hunger had a 0.6-point increase to 18.3 percent, slightly higher than the 17.8 percent overall in 2013.
There was a 0.7 point decrease in sever hunger in Metro Manila, down to 6 percent.
Poor, food-poor
About 41 percent, or about 8.8 million households, claimed to be food-poor in the last quarter, four points higher than in September.
Meanwhile, 55 percent of respondents or about 11.8 million households considered themselves poor, five points higher than the 50 percent in September.
According to the SWS poll, overall hunger rose by 1.4 points to 24.6 percent among the self-rated poor but fell by 2.2 percentage points to 10.3 percent among the not poor/on the borderline.
There was a 3.9-point increase in overall hunger, to 30.5 percent, among the food poor, and a 3.3-point drop to 9.6 percent among the not food poor/food borderline.
“At any one point in time, hunger among the self-rated food poor is always greater than hunger among the self-rated poor,” the SWS pointed out. — DVM, GMA News
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