SWS: Hunger rate at 27.2%, highest since pandemic

More Filipinos experienced involuntary hunger—or being hungry and having nothing to eat—at least once in the past three months, results from a recent national survey by Social Weather Stations (SWS) and Stratbase showed.

The survey, conducted from March 15 to March 20, showed 27.2 percent of Filipino families, or about 7.5 million households, faced involuntary hunger.

This is the highest recorded instance since the COVID-19 pandemic in September 2020 when it was at 30.7 percent. It is also 7 percentage points above the 2024 annual hunger average of 20.2 percent.

The hunger rate has also been on the rise for two consecutive months from 21.2 percent in February and 15.9 percent in January.

Highest in Visayas

The six-point rise between February and March was due to the increase in hunger rates in the Visayas, Luzon outside Metro Manila and Mindanao, combined with a steady score in Metro Manila.

Hunger was highest in the Visayas at 33.7 percent, followed by Metro Manila (28.3 percent), Mindanao (27.3 percent) and Luzon outside of Metro Manila at 24 percent.

Out of the 27.2 percent that reported involuntary hunger, 21 percent experienced “moderate hunger” and 6.2 percent had “severe hunger.”

“Moderate hunger” refers to those who experienced hunger “only once” or “a few times” in the last three months. “Severe hunger” refers to those who experienced it “often” or “always” in the same period.

Compared to February, “moderate hunger” rose by 5.1 points from 15.8 percent in February, while “severe hunger” rose slightly by 0.9 points from 5.3 percent.

In the Visayas, where instances of hunger were highest, “moderate hunger” increased by 12.3 points from 15.3 percent to 27.7 percent, with “severe hunger” up by 1.3 points from 4.7 percent to 6 percent.

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Moderate hunger

In Luzon outside Metro Manila, “moderate hunger” rose from 14.1 percent to 16.5 percent, while “severe hunger” rose from 5 percent to 7.4 percent.

In Mindanao, “moderate hunger” rose by 6 points from 16.7 percent to 22.7 percent. However, “severe hunger” fell by 2 points from 6.7 percent to 4.7 percent.

In Metro Manila, “moderate hunger” hardly moved from 22 percent in February to 23 percent in March, while “severe hunger” remained at 5.3 percent.

The March 2024 National Survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews with 1,800 registered voters nationwide, with a sampling error margin of plus-or-minus 2.31 percent for national percentages, plus-or-minus 3.27 percent for Luzon outside Metro Manila and plus-or-minus 5.66 percent each for Metro Manila, the Visayas and Mindanao.