Manila, Philippines — During the last three months, more Filipino families have experienced involuntary hunger—the state of being hungry and having nothing to eat atleast once during the said period.
According to a new survey released by the Social Weather Stations on Wednesday, hunger rate in the Philippine rose to 22.6% in September, from the 20.3% in June.
Notably, this is 1.5 points higher that the 21.1% average of hunger incidence in 2020, or during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In this percentage, 6.4% experience severe hunger, referring to those that experienced it “often” or “always” during the past three months.
16.2% experience moderate hunger, or being hungry “only once” or a “few times” during the same period.
The highest hunger incidence in September was highest in Metro Manila at 27.0%, from the 21.0% in June.
This was followed by Mindanao that slightly fell at 23.7%; Balance Luzon at 23.6% which is significantly higher that the 17.3% in June; while Visayas also decreased to 16.0%.
Meanwhile, the Survey found that 44% of Filipino Families rated themselves as food poor.
This is lower than the 47% of Families that are food-not-poor; while 9% placed themselves in between.
The survey was conducted from September 21 to 27, 2026, through face to face interviews with 1,500 Filipino adults nationwide.