SWS: Involuntary hunger rate rises to 12.6% in December 2023 survey

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 22) — The percentage of Filipino families who experienced involuntary hunger — or were hungry but had nothing to eat — at least once in the past three months rose to 12.6% in December 2023, a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey released on Monday showed.

That is 2.8 points higher compared to 9.8% in September 2023.

It brings the 2023 annual hunger rate to 10.7%, which is one point below the 11.7% average in 2022. However, it is 1.4 points above the pre-pandemic 9.3% average in 2019, SWS said.

“The 12.6% hunger rate in December 2023 was the sum of 11.2% who experienced Moderate Hunger and 1.4% who experienced Severe Hunger,” the pollster said.

SWS said “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.

Compared to data from September, the agency said that the incidence of hunger climbed by 5.3 points in Mindanao, 4.0 points in Balance Luzon, and 2.6 points in the Visayas. Data in Metro Manila dropped by 4.6 points.

SWS also said the rate of Total Hunger ( percentage of Moderate plus Severe) spiked among the Self-Rated Poor participants, from 7.7% in September 2023 to 20.1% in December 2023. The rate, however, fell among the Non-Poor from 10.4% to 5.9%.

The survey was conducted from Dec. 8 to 11 via face-to-face interviews with 1,200 adult Filipinos.

The sampling error margins are ±2.8% for national percentages, ±5.7% each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.