BREAKING: Hunger rate slightly up in Q2 this year —SWS

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MANILA, Philippines—The number of Filipino families nationwide who experienced hunger slightly increased in the second quarter of the year, a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed Monday.

In its second-quarter survey conducted from June 22-26, 2019, SWS found that 10 percent, or an estimated 2.5 million families, experienced involuntary hunger at least once in the past three months. 

This is slightly higher than the 9.5 percent, or an estimated 2.3 million families, in March 2019.

READ: Fewer Filipinos went hungry in first quarter of 2019

The 10 percent national quarterly “hunger” rate in June 2019 is the sum of 8.7 percent (estimated 2.1 million families) who experienced “moderate hunger” and 1.3 percent (estimated 320,000 families) who experienced “severe hunger.”

The rise in the nationwide hunger rate comes after a decrease of 3.8-percentage points within the previous three quarters, the SWS pointed out.

From 13.3 percent in September 2018, the number subsided to 10.5 percent in December, and then to 9.5 percent in March 2019.

Hunger rises among poor

The slight increase in hunger rate, however, happened only among the self-rated poor and self-rated food-poor families.

Among self-rated poor families, hunger rate went up by 4.3 points, from 11.9 percent in March, to 16.2 percent in June. While among self-rated food-poor families, it went up from 14.2 percent in March, to 17.3 percent in June.

Hunger up in Metro Manila, Mindanao

By area, Metro Manila recorded the highest hunger incidence with 15.7 percent. Meanwhile, Balance Luzon has 9.3 percent, the Visayas has 8.7 percent and Mindanao has 9 percent.

In Metro Manila, quarterly hunger rose by 4 percentage points, from 11.7% in March. Mindanao, for its part, recorded a 2-percentage points increase from 6.1 percent in March.

The June 2019 Social Weather Survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults nationwide: 300 each in Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao with a sampling error margin of ±3% for national percentages, and ±6% each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao. /jpv