Social Weather Stations (SWS) recorded the highest incidence of hunger of the Philippines after 7.6 million families said they went hungry at least once in the past three months amid the pandemic.
The proportion of households who experienced involuntary hunger increased to 30.7 percent from July to September, breaking the record of 23.8 percent registered in March 2012.
The hunger trend in the Philippines has been rising since May 2020. The country made progress in 2012 after it decreased to 23.8 in March 2012 and continued to decline to 8.8 percent in December 2019.
The survey showed that 22 percent or an estimated 5.5 million families experienced moderate hunger in the last few months.
Moderate hunger is defined as those who experienced hunger “only once” or “a few times” in the last three months.
Meanwhile, there were 8.7 percent or 2.2 million households who experienced severe hunger or experienced it “often” or “always” during the covered period.
Both the latest moderate and severe hunger rates also spiked to record highs.
SWS: 7.6 million families experience hunger in past 3 months
“Hunger incidence is higher among households of non-elementary graduate respondents,” SWS said.
Overall, among households of non-elementary graduate respondents, hunger increased to 47.7 percent; among families of elementary graduate respondents, it was 35.9 percent; among households of junior high school graduate respondents, it 30.9 percent, and among households of college graduates, it rose to 15.8 percent.
The SWS National Mobile Phone Survey was conducted from September 17 to 20. It was a probability-based survey conducted using a mobile phone and computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI).
The survey had 1,249 adult Filipinos as participants nationwide — 309 in Metro Manila, 328 in balance Luzon, 300 in the Visayas, and 312 in Mindanao.
The survey had a sampling error of ±3 percent for national percentages, ±6 percent for Metro Manila, ±5 percent for Balance Luzon, ±6 percent for the Visayas, and ±6 percent for Mindanao.
In September, SWS also released survey results showing 57 percent of Filipinos believed that the worst is yet to come as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.
The SWS poll showed the highest number of those who fear that the worst is yet to come are from Metro Manila at 70% followed by those residing in the Visayas at 61%.