More than one in five Filipino households went without food at least once between January and March, with the latest Social Weather Stations survey pointing to a worsening hunger situation across most of the country.
The poll, conducted from March 24 to 31 and released Tuesday, placed the involuntary hunger rate at 23.2 percent — up from 20.1 percent recorded in November 2025.
Of those who reported going hungry, 17.7 percent said it happened only occasionally, qualifying as moderate hunger under the SWS methodology. Another 5.5 percent said food scarcity was a frequent or constant experience — classified as severe hunger. Both figures represent increases from the November survey, when moderate hunger stood at 15.6 percent and severe hunger at 4.5 percent.
The Visayas posted the sharpest rise among the country’s major regions, with 28 percent of respondents there reporting hunger — a jump of nearly eight percentage points from the 20.3 percent recorded in November. Balance Luzon came in at 22.4 percent, up from 16.7 percent, while Metro Manila edged up slightly to 22 percent from 20.3 percent. Mindanao was the only region to show improvement, declining from 26.7 percent to 21.7 percent.
The survey also found that more than half of respondents — 52 percent — described their own families as poor, compared to 35 percent who said they were not poor.
