Hunger rate in December 2024 worst since pandemic - survey

Metro Manila, Philippines - The population of Filipino families experiencing hunger in December grew to its largest since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey released Tuesday night, Jan. 14.

The result of a December SWS survey showed that 25.9 percent of Filipino households felt “hungry and not having anything to eat at least once in the past three months.” The figure was 3 percentage points higher than September’s 22.9 percent.

About 18 percent of the quarter of Filipino families who felt hungry in December experienced moderate hunger while 7.2 percent faced severe hunger.

The December rate is the worst since September 2020’s 30.7 percent, logged during the pandemic lockdowns.

The hunger average in 2024 is 20.2 percent, almost twice as high as 2023’s 10.7 percent.

While slightly fewer families in Mindanao experienced hunger from 30.7 percent in September to 30.3 percent in December, it is still the area where most Filipino families were confronted with hunger.

Hunger incidence also dropped in Visayas from 26 percent to 24.4 percent.

Hunger incidence, meanwhile, increased in Balance Luzon from 18.1 percent to 25.3 percent and in Metro Manila from 21.7 percent to 22.2 percent.

The recent survey also said 51 percent of the families rated themselves as food-poor, 13 percent as food borderline, and 36 percent as not food-poor.

The SWS survey was conducted from Dec. 12 to 18 among 2,160 adults across the country. It has sampling error margins of ±2 percent to ±5 percent.