A Social Weather Stations survey disclosed on Sunday that the number of Filipino families who said they experienced "involuntary hunger" went down from 3.1 million in the first quarter of 2022 to 2.9 million in the second quarter.
The survey — conducted from 26 to 29 June 2022 — revealed that 11.6 percent of Filipino families, or an estimated 2.9 million families experienced hunger at least once in the past three months.
SWS defined the term involuntary hunger as being hungry and not having anything to eat at least once in the past three months and added that the latest figure is also 0.2 points below the 11.8 percent, or approximately three million families, recorded in December 2021.
However, it was 1.6 points above the 10 percent or an estimated 2.5 million families in September 2021. It was also 2.3 points above the pre-pandemic annual average of 9.3 percent in 2019.
The survey also showed that the incidence of hunger is still highest in Metro Manila at 14.7 percent or around 501,000 families but latest figures state that hunger incidence in the region declined by 3.9 points from 18.6 percent.
Hunger incidence also declined in the Visayas by 2.1 points from 7.8 percent, or an estimated 373,000 families in April, to 5.7 percent, or an estimated 272,000 families in June.
In contrast, the hunger rate in Mindanao went up by 0.9 points from 13.1 percent in April to 14.0 percent in June.
Likewise, the latest poll also showed an increase in hunger rate in Balance Luzon by 0.2 points from 11.7 percent, or an estimated 1.3 million families in April to 11.9 percent, or an estimated 1.4 million families in June.
The same survey also reported that around 2.4 million Filipino families experienced "moderate hunger" while around 540,000 families experienced "severe hunger."
The survey 1,500 adult respondents who answered through face-to-face interviews, with sampling error margins of ±2.5 percent for national percentages and ±5.7 percent each for Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao and ±4.0 percent in Balance Luzon.
