3M families faced hunger last year, SWS poll shows | Inquirer News
SELF-RATED HUNGER SURVEY

3M families faced hunger last year, SWS poll shows

/ 05:40 AM January 20, 2023

SPIRIT OF THE SEASON Manila’s poor, many of them homeless, line up at Liwasang Bonifacio on Sunday, a week before Christmas Day, to avail themselves of food packs being distributed courtesy of a private clinic. —RICHARD A. REYES

An estimated 3 million families, or 11.8 percent of families in the country, said they experienced involuntary hunger in the last quarter of 2022, according to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey conducted on Dec. 10 to Dec. 14.

The December hunger rate was 0.5-point higher than the 11.3 percent, or around 2.89 million families, in October 2022 and slightly higher than the 11.6 percent, or 2.95 million families, in June last year.

ADVERTISEMENT

Involuntary hunger is defined by SWS as being hungry and not having anything to eat at least once in the past three months.

In the latest survey, the hunger rate was highest in Mindanao at 12.7 percent followed by 12 percent in Visayas, 11.7 percent in Metro Manila and 11.3 percent in Luzon outside Metro Manila.

FEATURED STORIES

Slight increase

The slight increase in overall hunger between October 2022 and December 2022 was due to the increases in Visayas and Luzon outside Metro Manila amid decreases in hunger in Mindanao and Metro Manila, SWS said.

Hunger climbed by 5 points in Visayas from 7 percent or 336,000 families to 12 percent or 576,000 families. Meanwhile, a 1.7-point increase was recorded in Luzon outside Metro Manila, from 9.6 percent or 1.1 million families to 11.3 percent or 1.3 million families.

In Metro Manila, hunger fell by 4.6 points from 16.3 percent, or 558,000 families, to 11.7 percent, or 399,000 families. In Mindanao, hunger decreased by 2.6 points from 15.3 percent, or 893,000 families, to 12.7 percent, or 738,000 families.

The 11.8-percent hunger rate in December was the sum of 9.5 percent, or 2.4 million families, who experienced moderate hunger and 2.3 percent, or 599,000 families, who experienced severe hunger.

Moderate hunger

According to SWS, 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 past three months.

In the same survey round, SWS found that 51 percent of Filipino families rated themselves as poor in December 2022 while 19 percent considered themselves as not poor and 31 percent as borderline or placed themselves on a horizontal line dividing “poor” and “not poor.”

SWS said that hunger among nonpoor rose from 6.7 percent in October to 7.8 percent in December, while it fell slightly among the self-rated poor from 16.0 percent to 15.7 percent.

The SWS survey used face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults age 18 years old and above nationwide. The survey had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 2.5 percentage points for national percentages, plus-or-minus 5.7 percentage points each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

—INQUIRER RESEARCH

RELATED STORIES:

12.9M Filipinos feel ‘poor’ in Q4 2022 – SWS

73% of FIlipinos expect a happy Christmas in 2022 — SWS survey

Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Your subscription has been successful.

Subscribe to our daily newsletter

By providing an email address. I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy.

Read Next
Don't miss out on the latest news and information.

Subscribe to INQUIRER PLUS to get access to The Philippine Daily Inquirer & other 70+ titles, share up to 5 gadgets, listen to the news, download as early as 4am & share articles on social media. Call 896 6000.

TAGS: families, Hunger, Luzon, Metro Manila, Mindanao, SWS survey, Visayas
For feedback, complaints, or inquiries, contact us.
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Your subscription has been successful.

News that matters

By providing an email address. I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy.



© Copyright 1997-2023 INQUIRER.net | All Rights Reserved

We use cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. By continuing, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. To find out more, please click this link.