Manila, Sept. 10 — Fewer Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger in the second quarter of 2022, according to the Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey released on Sunday, Sept. 11.

The nationwide survey conducted on June 26 to 29 with 1,500 respondents found that 11.6 percent of Filipino families, or about 2.9 million households, experienced involuntary hunger in the past three months.

This is lower than the 12.2 percent or 3.1 million families that felt involuntary hunger in the April 2022 survey, and 0.2 points below the 11.2 percent or 3 million households in the December 2021 survey, SWS said.

It defines involuntary hunger as “being hungry and not having anything to eat at least once in the past three months.”

However, SWS said the latest figure is still 2.3 points above the pre-pandemic annual average of 9.3 percent in 2019.

Hunger eases in Metro Manila, Visayas; rises in Mindanao, Balance Luzon

SWS pointed out that the experience of hunger is highest in Metro Manila at 14.7 percent of Filipino families, followed by Mindanao at 14 percent, Balance Luzon or Luzon outside Metro Manila at 11.9 percent, and the Visayas at 5.7 percent.

“The 0.6-point decline in overall hunger between April 2022 and June 2022 is due to declines in Metro Manila and the Visayas, combined with increases in Mindanao and Balance Luzon,” it said.

Moreover, SWS noted that the 11.6 percent hunger rate in June 2022 is the sum of 9.4 percent (2.4 million families) who experienced “moderate hunger” and 2.1 percent (546,000 families) who experienced “severe hunger.”

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 last three months.For any query with respect to this article or any other content requirement, please contact Editor at contentservices@htlive.comManila Bulletin

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