PH involuntary hunger rate soars to 22.6%, surpasses pandemic-era level

The proportion of Filipino families experiencing involuntary hunger reached a record high surge in September to 22.6%, surpassing the levels recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic as self-rated poverty  deepened, according to the survey released on October 14. 

According to the Social Weather Stations (SWS), the third-quarter survey results marked a 2.3-percentage-point increase from 20.3% in June. The figure was also 1.5 percentage points higher than the 21.1% recorded in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Of the 1,500 adults surveyed from September 21 to 27, 16.2% of families experienced “moderate hunger” or “going without food once or a few times over the past three months.” 

Families under “severe hunger” spiked a 1.9-percentage-point-increase, rising to 6.4% from 4.5% in June. These are the families that experience hunger often or always. 

Across the regions, hunger in Metro Manila jumped six percentage points to 27% from 21 % in June, making it the most affected region in the country. 

Mindanao delivered the second highest percentage at 23.7% despite the decline from 24%in the same year, while the rate in Luzon outside Manila rose to 23.6% from 17.3%

Visayas, however, executed a decline, with involuntary hunger failing by 6.3 percentage-point from 22.3%. 

Metro Manila recorded the highest rates of both moderate and severe hunger at 18.7% and 8.3%, respectively. Moderate hunger in the capital region rose from 12.7% in June, while severe hunger remained unchanged. 

In Luzon outside Metro Manila, moderate hunger increased to 16.3% from 13.0%, while severe hunger climbed to 7.3% from 4.3%. Mindanao recorded 18% moderate hunger, down from 20.7%, but severe hunger rose to 5.7% from 3.3%. 

Meanwhile, the Visayas saw declines in moderate hunger to 12.0% from 18.7%, while severe hunger slightly increased to 4.0% from 3.7%.

SWS attributed the overall rise in involuntary hunger to increasing self-rated poverty and food poverty, with hunger among families identifying as poor climbing to 27.9% from 24.5% in June, while the rate among food-poor families rose to 33.2% from 29.9%. 

The hunger upswing also comes as a result of the continuous increase in the prices of basic goods as the national food inflation worsened to 6.7% in September from 4.6% in August, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). 

PSA also reported that Philippine inflation surged back to a three-year high of 7.2%  in September as adverse weather and rising global oil prices fueled increases in food, utility, and transport costs.

The third-quarter  2026 SWS survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews. The sampling error margins were ±3 percentage points for national estimates, ±4 for Luzon outside Metro Manila, and ±6 for Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao.