SWS: Hunger worsens in Q3

MANILA, Philippines – The number of Filipino families who experienced involuntary hunger rose to 3.5 million in the third quarter of the year, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) found in its latest survey.

The SWS poll, taken from Sept. 2 to 5, found 15.7 percent of respondents or an estimated 3.5 million families saying they experienced “involuntary hunger” at least once in the past three months.

The latest hunger rate is three points higher than the 12.7 percent (2.8 million families) recorded in the second quarter and the highest since December 2014’s 17.2 percent, the pollster said.

The total hunger rate is composed of 14.1 percent or about 3.1 million families who said they experienced “moderate hunger” and 1.6 percent or an estimated 361,000 families who said they suffered from “severe hunger.”

Moderate hunger refers to those who suffered from involuntary hunger “only once” or “a few times” in the past three months, while “severe hunger” pertains to those who experienced or felt hunger “often” or “always” in the last three months.

Overall, “moderate hunger” rose by 3.3 points from 10.8 percent (an estimated 2.4 million families) in the June survey.

“Severe hunger” slightly fell from 1.9 percent (an estimated 431,000 families) in June to 1.6 percent in September, the lowest “severe hunger” rate since September 2003’s 1.2 percent.

By geographic area, hunger was highest in Mindanao, rising by 7.4 points to 21.7 percent (an estimated 1.1 million families) from 14.3 percent (estimated 726,000 families) in June.

In Metro Manila, hunger remained at 18.3 percent (estimated 553,000 families) – the worst since the 22 percent registered in September last year.

In balance Luzon, hunger went up by four points to 14.7 percent (an estimated 1.4 million families) from 10.7 percent (estimated 1.1 million families) in June.

In the Visayas, hunger fell by 2.4 points to 9.3 percent (an estimated 399,000 families) in September from 11.7 percent or about 499,000 families in June. It was the lowest since March 2004’s 6.6 percent.

Results of the latest SWS survey on hunger were published in the newspaper BusinessWorld yesterday.

The SWS poll used face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults nationwide.

It has sampling error margins of plus or minus three percentage points for national percentages and plus or minus six percentage points each for Metro Manila, balance Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao. –Helen Flores (The Philippine Star)