Fewer Filipinos families experienced hunger in the first quarter of 2015, the lowest in ten years, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) said in its latest survey.
In a report, SWS said about 13.5 percent or 3 million families experienced involuntary hunger at least once in the past three months, the lowest since May 2005 when it was at 12 percent.
This is 3.7 points below the 17.2 percent or 3.8 million families in December 2014.
The measure of hunger refers to involuntary suffering because the respondents answer a survey question that specifies hunger due to lack of food to eat.
SWS said Filipinos who experienced both moderate and severe hunger also declined in the first quarter.
Moderate Hunger refers to those who experienced hunger only once or a few times in the last three months, while severe hunger refers to those who experienced it often or always in the last three months.
Moderate Hunger fell by 2.1 points from 13.2 percent (est. 2.9 million families) to 11.1 percent.
Severe Hunger declined by 1.7 points from 4.1 percent (est. 888,000 families) to 2.4 percent.
SWS conducted the nationwide survey last March 20-23 among 1,200 respondents.
Manila Bulletin
