SWS: Fewer Filipino families went hungry in first quarter

Fewer Filipino families reported experiencing involuntary hunger in the first quarter of 2023, according to the Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey results released on Thursday, May 11.

In the March 26 to 29 survey, SWS found out that 9.8 percent of Filipino families, or about 2.7 million households, experienced involuntary hunger at least once in the past three months.

SWS defines involuntary hunger as “being hungry and not having anything to eat.”

It noted that the March 2023 hunger figure was down from 11.8 percent, or about three million families, in December 2022, and 11.3 percent, or approximately 2.9 million families, in October 2022.

“However, it was still higher than the 8.8 percent, estimated 2.1 million families, in December 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic,” SWS pointed out.

SWS attributed the two-point decline in overall hunger between December 2022 and March 2023 to decreases in all areas, which is more noticeable in Balance Luzon and the Visayas than in Metro Manila and Mindanao.

“The experience of hunger was highest in Mindanao at 11.7 percent (from 12.7 percent), followed by Metro Manila at 10.7 percent (from 11.7 percent), the Visayas at 9.7 percent (from 12 percent), and Balance Luzon or Luzon outside Metro Manila at 8.7 percent (from 11.3 percent),” it said.

SWS also noted that hunger has been highest in Mindanao in 39 out of 101 surveys since July 1998.

According to SWS, the 9.8 percent hunger rate in March 2023 was the sum of 8.6 percent or about 2.3 million families who experienced “moderate hunger” and 1.2 percent or about 340,000 families who experienced “severe hunger.”

It said that moderate hunger refers to hunger that occurred “only once” or “a few times,” while severe hunger refers to hunger that occurred “often” or “always” in the past three months.

“Compared to December 2022, moderate hunger fell from 9.5 percent (estimated 2.4 million families), while severe hunger fell from 2.3 percent (estimated 599,000 families),” SWS noted.

In Metro Manila, moderate hunger “hardly moved” from 9.3 percent in December 2022 to 9.7 percent in March 2023, while severe hunger fell from 2.3 percent to one percent.

Meanwhile, in Balance Luzon, moderate and severe hunger fell from 9.3 percent to 7.7 percent and from two percent to one percent, respectively.

Moderate and severe hunger also fell in the Visayas from 10 percent to nine percent and from two percent to 0.7 percent, respectively.

In Mindanao, moderate hunger “stayed” at 9.3 percent from December 2022 to March 2023, while severe hunger was down from 3.3 percent to 2.3 percent.

The First Quarter 2023 Social Weather Survey was conducted from March 26 to 29 and used face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults nationwide.

It has sampling error margins of +/-2.8 percent for national percentages and +/-5.7 percent each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.