STILL POOR A homeless family shares a meager meal on the city’s streets. Despite improvements in the country’s economic indicators, more than 26 million Filipinos remain poor, with about 12 million living in extreme poverty. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Involuntary hunger among Filipinos saw a slight uptick, according to the Social Weather Survey (SWS) findings released on Thursday.
The SWS’ fourth quarter of 2022 survey, which was conducted from December 10-14, 2022, revealed that 11.8 percent of Filipino families, or an estimated 3.0 million, experienced involuntary hunger.
This figure was slightly above 11.3 percent (estimated 2.89 million families) in October 2022 and 11.6 percent (estimated 2.95 million families) in June 2022.
The SWS defines involuntary hunger as being hungry and not having anything to eat at least once in the past three months.
The survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews with 1,200 adults (18 years old and above) nationwide with 300 each from Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.
The sampling error margins are ±2.5% for national percentages and ±5.7% each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
600,000 families see ‘severe’ hunger
Of the 11.8 percent hunger rate, 2.3 percent or some 599,000 families nationwide said they experienced severe hunger.
On the other hand, 9.5 percent, or 2.4 million families, said they experienced moderate hunger.
“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 previous three months.
“Moderate hunger” fell in Metro Manila and Mindanao, while “severe hunger” also decreased in the metropolis while it saw a slight uptick in Mindanao.
In Metro Manila, “moderate hunger” fell by 1.4 points from 10.7 percent in October 2022 to 9.3 percent in December 2022, while “severe hunger” fell by 3.4 points from 5.7 percent to 2.3 percent. In Mindanao, “moderate hunger” fell by 3.0 points from 12.3 percent in October 2022 to 9.3 percent in December 2022. However, Severe Hunger rose slightly by 0.3 points from three percent to 3.3 percent.
“Moderate” and “severe” hunger both saw an uptick in Balance Luzon and Mindanao.
In Balance Luzon, “moderate hunger” rose by 1.2 points from 8.1 percent in October 2022 to 9.3 percent in December 2022, while “severe hunger” rose by 0.5 points from 1.5 percent to two percent.
In Visayas, “moderate hunger” rose by 3.7 points from 6.3 percent in October 2022 to ten percent in December 2022, while Severe Hunger rose by 1.3 points from 0.7 percent to two percent.
Highest involuntary hunger in Mindanao, Visayas sees huge uptick
Involuntary hunger is highest in Mindanao, while Visayas experienced the highest leap.
In Mindanao, 12.7 percent of families said they experienced involuntary hunger, followed by the Visayas at 12 percent, Metro Manila at 11.7 percent, and Balance Luzon (or Luzon outside Metro Manila) at 11.3 percent.
The SWS noted that involuntary hunger is highest in Mindanao in 38 out of 100 surveys since July 1998.
The incidence of hunger rose by five points in Visayas, from seven percent or 336,000 families in October 2022 to 12 percent or 576,000 families.
On the other hand, involuntary hunger fell by 4.6 points in Metro Manila, from 16.3 percent or 558,000 families to 11.7 percent or 399,000 families. It also fell by 2.6 points in Mindanao, from 15.3 percent or 893,000 families to 12.7 percent or 738,000 families.
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