Survey finds increase in number of Pinoy families who experienced hunger

The number of Filipino families who said they have experienced involuntary hunger due to lack of anything to eat has increased by 500,000 households in the third quarter of 2017, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey results showed.

The nationwide survey conducted last September 23 to 27 among 1,500 respondents found 11.8 percent or an estimated 2.7 million families experienced involuntary hunger at least once in the past three months.

SWS said the measure of hunger refers to involuntary suffering because the respondents answer a survey question that specifies hunger due to lack of food to eat.

The latest figure is 2.3 points above the 9.5 percent or about 2.2 million families in June 2017, but similar to the 11.9 percent or an estimated 2.7 million families in March 2017.

Hunger rate is highest in the rest of Luzon at 13.8 percent (1.4 million families), followed by Metro Manila at 11.7 percent (364,000 families), Mindanao at 9.7 percent (506,000 families), and Visayas at 9.7 percent (427,000 families).

SWS pointed out that the 11.8 percent quarterly hunger rate is the sum of 9.6 percent (2.2 million families) who experienced moderate hunger, and 2.1 percent (493,000 families) who experienced severe hunger in the past three months.

Moderate hunger refers to those who experienced hunger "only once" or "a few times" in the last three months, while severe hunger refers to those who experienced it "often" or "always" in the last three months.

The few who did not state their frequency of hunger were classified under moderate hunger, SWS said.

Both moderate hunger and severe hunger increased between June 2017 and September 2017. Prior to this, both had been steadily declining since December 2016.

The survey showed that moderate hunger rose by 1.8 points, from 7.9 percent in June to 9.6 percent in September. This is similar to the 9.7 percent in March.

Likewise, severe hunger rose by 0.5 points, from 1.6 percent in June to 2.1 percent in September. This is similar to the 2.2 percent in March.

According to SWS, the 2.3-point rise in quarterly hunger rate amid the three-point increase in selfrated poor and the steady self-rated food-poor proportions between June 2017 and September 2017 was due to an increase in the incidence of hunger among both the self-rated poor and self-rated non-poor, as well as among both the self-rated food poor and self-rated food nonpoor.

From June 2017 to September 2017, quarterly hunger rose by 3.1 points among the self-rated poor, from 13.6 percent in June to 16.7 percent in September.

It also rose by 1.1 points among the non-poor over the same period, going from 6.3 percent to 7.4 percent.

Prior to this, both values had been declining since December 2016.

It rose by 2.7 points among the self-rated food-poor, from 17.1 percent in June to 19.8 percent in September. It rose by 2.1 points among the not food-poor/food-borderline, from 5.9 percent to 8.0 percent.