THE national Social Weather Survey of March 21-25, 2024, found that 14.2% of Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger – being hungry and not having anything to eat – at least once in the past three months.
Compared to December 2023, hunger rose by 1.6 points, from 12.6%.
The March 2024 hunger figure was 3.5 points above the 10.7% annual hunger rate of 2023, and the highest since 16.8% in May 2021.
The First Quarter 2024 Social Weather Survey was conducted from March 21-25, 2024, using face-to-face interviews of 1,500 adults (18 years old and above) nationwide: 600 in Balance Luzon (or Luzon outside Metro Manila), and 300 each in Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao. Face-to-face is the standard interviewing method for Social Weather Stations; the only exceptions were early in the pandemic when movement restrictions made face-to-face impossible and mobile phone interviews were conducted. Normal face-to-face field operations resumed in November 2020. The sampling error margins are ±2.5% for national percentages, ±4.0% for Balance Luzon, and ±5.7% each for Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao.
The area estimates were weighted by the Philippine Statistics Authority medium-population projections for 2024 to obtain the national estimates.
The survey items reported here were non-commissioned. They were included on SWS’s initiative and released as a public service.
