Hunger rate drops to 20.3% in June
Rate was 23.2% in March
Published Aug 25, 2026 08:14 am
At A Glance
- The Second Quarter 2026 Social Weather Survey found that 20.3 percent of Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger, or being hungry and having nothing to eat, at least once in the past three months.
- According to SWS, the national hunger rate consisted of 15.8 percent who experienced "moderate hunger" and 4.5 percent who experienced "severe hunger."
- Mindanao posted the highest hunger rate at 24 percent, followed by the Visayas at 22.3 percent, Metro Manila at 21 percent, and Balance Luzon at 17.3 percent.
(Manila Bulletin file)
Fewer Filipino families experienced hunger in the second quarter of 2026, based on the Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey conducted from June 20 to 29.
The Second Quarter 2026 Social Weather Survey found that 20.3 percent of Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger, or being hungry and having nothing to eat, at least once in the past three months.
SWS said the figure was 2.9 percentage points lower than the 23.2 percent recorded in March, while it was 0.1 point above the 20.2 percent average for 2025 and 0.8 point below the 21.1 percent average recorded in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The 2.9-point fall in hunger between March 2026 and June 2026 was due to decreases in Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, and the Visayas, even as hunger rose in Mindanao,” SWS said.
Mindanao posted the highest hunger rate at 24 percent, followed by the Visayas at 22.3 percent, Metro Manila at 21 percent, and Balance Luzon at 17.3 percent.
Compared with March, hunger fell by 5.7 percentage points in the Visayas, 5.1 points in Balance Luzon, and one point in Metro Manila.
However, hunger in Mindanao rose by 2.3 points from 21.7 percent.
Moderate vs severe hunger
According to SWS, the national hunger rate consisted of 15.8 percent who experienced “moderate hunger” and 4.5 percent who experienced “severe hunger.”
“Moderate hunger refers to those who experienced hunger ‘only once’ or ‘a few times’ in the last three months,” SWS said.
“Meanwhile, severe hunger refers to those who experienced it ‘often’ or ‘always’ in the previous three months,” it added.
The survey showed that moderate hunger declined by 1.9 points from 17.7 percent in March, while severe hunger dropped by one point from 5.5 percent.
In Metro Manila, moderate hunger fell from 15.3 percent to 12.7 percent, while severe hunger increased from 6.7 percent to 8.3 percent.
In Balance Luzon, moderate hunger dropped from 16.6 percent to 13 percent, while severe hunger declined from 5.8 percent to 4.3 percent.
In the Visayas, moderate hunger fell from 21.7 percent to 18.7 percent, while severe hunger declined from 6.3 percent to 3.7 percent.
Moderate hunger increased from 18 percent to 20.7 percent in Mindanao, although severe hunger fell slightly from 3.7 percent to 3.3 percent.
The SWS survey was conducted from June 20 to 29 through face-to-face interviews with 1,200 adults nationwide, with 300 respondents each from Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.
The survey has a sampling error margin of ±3 percentage points for national figures and ±6 percentage points for each of the four areas.