A recent survey from the Social Weather Stations showed that fewer Filipinos have experienced involuntary hunger at least once in the first quarter of the year.
Based on the SWS survey conducted from March 26 to 29, at least 9.8 percent of Filipino families, or an estimated 2.7 million experienced involuntary hunger or being hungry and not having anything to eat at least once in the past three months.
It was down from 11.8 percent or three million families in December 2022, and 11.3 percent or 2.9 million families in October 2022.
However, SWS said the recent result is still higher than the 8.8 percent or 2.1 million families in December 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Involuntary hunger was highest among those in Mindanao at 11.7 percent from 12.7 percent, followed by Metro Manila at 10.7 percent from 11.7 percent, Visayas at 9.7 percent from 12 percent, and the rest of Luzon at 8.7 percent from 11.3 percent.
The first quarter SWS survey was conducted from March 26 to 29 using face-to-face interviews with 1,200 adults aged 18 and above nationwide.
It has a sampling error margin of ±2.8% for national percentages, and ±5.7% each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
