Hunger in the Philippines surged to 22.9 percent in September, up from 17.6 percent in June, according to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey. The rise was largely driven by significant increases in the Visayas and Mindanao regions.
The survey, conducted from September 14 to 23, revealed that hunger levels in Mindanao almost doubled, reaching 30.7 percent, a sharp jump from 15.7 percent in June. Similarly, the Visayas saw a rise to 26 percent from 13.7 percent. Metro Manila also recorded a slight increase to 21.7 percent, while hunger rates in Luzon outside the capital region slightly decreased from 19.6 percent to 18.1 percent.
This latest hunger figure is the highest since the peak of 30.7 percent recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic in September 2020. SWS defines involuntary hunger as experiencing hunger and having nothing to eat at least once in the past three months.
The overall hunger rate consists of 16.8 percent of respondents who experienced “moderate hunger,” meaning they were hungry once or a few times in the past three months, and 6.1 percent who suffered from “severe hunger,” experiencing it often or always during the same period.
The survey involved face-to-face interviews with 1,500 adults across the country and had a margin of error of ±2.5 percent for national results.
