Fewer Filipino families experienced hunger in Q1 of 2018 — SWS

Fewer Filipino families went hungry in the first quarter of 2018, according to the latest survey of Social Weather Stations (SWS) released early Sunday, April 29. (Photo by Feed My Starving Children (FMSC)/Flickr, CC BY 2.0)

Fewer Filipino families were hungry in the first quarter of 2018, according to the latest survey of Social Weather Stations (SWS) released early Sunday, April 29.

The First Quarter 2018 Social Weather Survey, conducted from March 23 to 27 this year, showed that an estimated 2.3 million or 9.9 percent families experienced involuntary hunger at least once from January to March.

This result, according to SWS, is six points below the 15.9 percent quarterly Hunger in December 2017. It is also the second time hunger has been in the single-digit range since March 2004.

The SWS said the 9.9 percent quarterly hunger is the total amount of 8.6 percent (2.9 million families) who experienced “moderate hunger” and 1.3 percent (306,000 families) who experienced “severe hunger.”

The pollster explained that “moderate hunger” refers to those families 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 same period.

Those families who did not state their frequency of hunger were classified under “moderate hunger.”

Meanwhile, the SWS noted that hunger rates all over the country dropped.

According to its latest findings, hunger levels in Metro Manila fell by 8.7 points from 14.7 percent (457,000 families) in December 2017 to six percent in March 2018, while it declined by 6.7 points in Balance Luzon from 17.7 percent (1.8 million families) last quarter to 11.0 percent now.

Quarterly hunger also decreased slightly by 0.3 points in the Visayas from 13.3 percent (589,000 families) in December to 13.0 percent in March, and in Mindanao by 8.0 points from 15.3 percent (802,000 families) last quarter to 7.33 percent now.

The survey firm noted that the drop in the quarterly hunger rate between December 2017 and March 2018 was “due to a decrease in the incidence of hunger among both the Self-Rated Poor and Self-Rated Non-Poor.”

“From December to March, quarterly Hunger fell by 8.2 points among the Self-Rated Poor, from 24.9% in December to 16.7% in March,” the SWS said.

“Hunger also fell among the Self-Rated Food-Poor, falling by 8.0 points from 28.8% in December to 20.8% in March. It also fell by 4.5 points among the Not Food-Poor/Food-Borderline, from 9.9% to 5.4%,” it added.

It further stressed that quarterly hunger among the Self-Rated Food-Poor “is always greater than” hunger among the Self-Rated Poor.

The March 2018 Social Weather Survey used face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults (18 years old and above) nationwide, with sampling error margin of plus-minus three percent for national percentages, and plus-minus six percent each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.