Hunger down in November at 20.1% but 51% of Pinoy families rate themselves poor
At least two out of 10 Filipinos experienced involuntary hunger—being hungry and having nothing to eat—at least once in the past three months, according to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey released on Wednesday.
The survey, which was conducted from Nov. 24 to Nov. 30 last year, found that 15.6 percent of Filipinos experienced moderate hunger while 4.5 percent experienced severe hunger, bringing the total hunger rate to 20.1 percent.
The SWS defines moderate hunger as hunger experienced “only once” or “a few times” in the last three months, while severe hunger is hunger that is felt “often” or “always” within the same time period.
The latest hunger rating is lower than the 22 percent reported in September last year, which was an increase from the 16.1 percent recorded in June.
The resulting 20.2 percent average hunger rate for the whole of 2025 was unchanged from the rating recorded in 2024. But it was lower by 0.9 percent from the record-high 21.1 percent average of 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The decline in the November 2025 survey was due to decreases in Metro Manila and Luzon outside Metro Manila, combined with increases in Mindanao and the Visayas.
Highest in Mindanao
Hunger was highest in Mindanao at 26.7 percent (up by 7.0 percentage points from 19.7 percent in September 2025), followed by Metro Manila at 20.3 percent (down 5.4 percentage points from 25.7 percent).
Next was the Visayas, also at 20.3 percent (up by 2.6 percentage points from 17.7 percent), and Luzon outside Metro Manila at 16.7 percent (down by 7.1 percentage points from 23.8 percent).
The latest survey also found that 51 percent of Filipino families rated themselves as “mahirap” or “poor,” while 37 percent rated themselves as “hindi mahirap” or “not poor.” On the other hand, 12 percent rated themselves as borderline (on the line dividing “poor” and “not poor”).
Face-to-face interviews with 1,200 adults were used in the SWS November survey. It had sampling error margins of plus-or-minus 3 percent for national percentages, and plus-or-minus 6 percent each for Metro Manila, Luzon outside Metro Manila, the Visayas and Mindanao.
