SWS: 4.2M families experienced hunger in last 3 months

by INQUIRER RESEARCH INQ, 14 Jul 2021

Hunger incidence remained high, with 4.2 million Filipino families saying they experienced involuntary hunger at least once in the first quarter of the year, according to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey.

The survey, which interviewed 1,200 adult Filipinos face-to-face, was conducted from April 28 to May 2, more than a year since the country was first placed under lockdown.

The SWS found that 16.8 percent, or about 4.2 million families, experienced involuntary hunger or hunger due to lack of food to eat in the past three months prior to the survey.While the latest hunger rate was 4.3 points below the record-high annual average of 21.1 percent in 2020, it was 0.8 points higher than the 16 percent, or 4 million families, last November and still double the December 2019 prepandemic level of 8.8 percent, or an estimated 2.1 million families.The percentage of those who experienced “moderate hunger” consisted of 14.1 percent while those who experienced “severe hunger” were 2.7 percent. Hunger rose in Mindanao from 16 percent in November to 20.7 percent in May, while it declined in Metro Manila from 23.3 percent to 14.7 percent.

The hunger incidence also went up in Visayas from 14.3 percent to 16.3 percent and in Luzon outside Metro Manila from 14.4 percent to 15.7 percent.

Overall hunger rose among the self-rated poor, from 21.7 percent in November to 23.5 percent in May while it hardly changed among the “nonpoor,” from 10.6 percent to 10.3 percent.

Among those who rated themselves poor in terms of their food, overall hunger increased from 28.1 percent to 32.9 percent while it declined among the “non-food-poor” from 10.5 percent to 9.3 percent.

The survey had a sampling margin of error of plus-or-minus 3 percent. —