SWS: 2.5 million Filipino families experienced hunger once in past 3 months

By CNN Philippines Staff, 7 Dec 2021

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 7) — The latest Social Weather Stations survey revealed that around 2.5 million Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger at least once in the past 3 months.

This figure also shows that around 10% of families went hungry due to lack of food to eat in the past quarter.

The survey noted that the September 2021 hunger rate is 3.6 points below the 13.6% recorded in June 2021, and 11.1 points below the 2020 annual average of 21.1%. However, this is still 0.7 points above the 2019 annual average of 9.3%

“The resulting 13.5% average for the first three quarters of 2021 is less than for last year but has not fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels,” it added.

Broken down, 7.9%, or around 2 million families, experienced moderate hunger, and 2.1%, or 534,000 families, experienced severe hunger.

SWS said “moderate hunger” refers to those who experienced hunger “only once” or “a few times” in the last three months. Meanwhile, severe hunger refers to those who experienced it “often” or “always” in the same period.

The pollster attributed the decline to decreases in all areas except in Metro Manila, which remained at 14.0%.

“Hunger has been worst in Metro Manila in 21 out of 95 surveys since July 1998,” it noted.

From both 15%, hunger in Balance Luzon and Mindanao declined to 10.3%.

Rate also declined in the Visayas to 6.0% from 8.3%.

The survey was conducted from Sept. 12 to 16, using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults across the country.

The sampling error margins are ±3% for national percentages and ±6% for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.