In December 2024, a new survey showed that 25.9% of Filipino families experienced hunger, the highest number since the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020. This means that nearly 1 in 4 families in the Philippines struggled to find food.
The number is up from 22.9% in September 2024. The last time hunger was this high was in September 2020, when the pandemic forced many people to stay home, and 30.7% of families were hungry.
The survey calls this “involuntary hunger,” which means people were hungry but didn’t have food to eat. The survey showed that 18.7% of families felt hungry only a few times, while 7.2% were often or always hungry.
The survey also showed different hunger levels in different parts of the country:
- In Balance Luzon (outside Metro Manila), hunger jumped from 18.1% in September to 25.3% in December.
- In the Visayas, the hunger rate decreased slightly, from 26.0% to 24.4%.
- In Mindanao, the rate stayed almost the same, at 30.7% in September and 30.3% in December.
The survey was conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) between December 12-18, 2024, with face-to-face interviews of 2,160 adults across the Philippines. The margin of error for the national results is ±2%, while the margins for different regions are slightly higher.
These numbers show that many Filipino families continue to struggle with hunger, which is becoming a growing concern in the country.
