More Filipinos have experienced involuntary hunger in the fourth quarter of 2021, the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed Friday, March 25.

The survey conducted from Dec. 12 to 16, 2021, with 1,440 respondents found that 11.8 percent of Filipino families, or about 3 million households, experienced involuntary hunger at least once in the past three months.

SWS defines involuntary hunger as being hungry and not having anything to eat.

“The December 2021 hunger rate is 1.8 points above the 10 percent (estimated 2.5 million families) in September 2021, but still lower than the 16.8 percent in May 2021 and 13.6 percent in June 2021,” it said.

“The resulting annual average hunger rate for 2021 is 13.1 percent versus the record-high 21.1 percent for 2020. However, this is still above the 9.3 percent annual average for 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic,” it added.

Hunger rises in all areas except in Balance Luzon

SWS explained that the 1.8-point rise in overall hunger between September 2021 and December 2021 was because of increases in all areas except in Balance Luzon.

It said the experience of hunger is highest in Metro Manila at 22.8 percent of families, followed by Mindanao at 12.2 percent, the Visayas at 9.7 percent, and Balance Luzon, or Luzon outside Metro Manila, at 9.2 percent.

Moderate hunger vs severe hunger

SWS said the 13.1 percent overall hunger is composed of 9.2 percent who experienced moderate hunger or hunger “only once” or “a few times” in the last three months, while 2.6 percent experienced severe hunger “often” or “always” during the same period.

“In September 2021, moderate hunger was 7.9 percent (estimated 2 million families), and severe hunger was 2.1 percent (estimated 534,000 families),” SWS pointed out.

In Metro Manila, moderate hunger rose by 7.2 points from 9.7 percent in September 2021 to 16.9 percent in December 2021, while severe hunger rose by 1.5 points from 4.3 percent to 5.8 percent.

In Balance Luzon, moderate hunger fell by 1.6 points from 8 percent to 6.4 percent, but severe hunger rose slightly from 2.3 percent to 2.8 percent.

“The latest moderate hunger rate is the lowest in this area since the 5 percent in December 2019,” SWS said.

Meanwhile, in the Visayas, moderate hunger rose by 3.3 points from 5 percent to 8.3 percent, while severe hunger rose slightly from 1 percent to 1.4 percent.

In Mindanao, moderate hunger increased by 1.8 points from 9 percent to 10.8 percent, while severe hunger barely moved from 1.3 percent to 1.4 percent.