The SWS Surveys of Philippine Hunger, 1998–2024

In September 2024, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) reported that 22.9 percent of Filipino households experienced involuntary hunger—being hungry and not having anything to eat—at least once in the past three months. This paper focuses on the surveys of Philippine hunger conducted by the SWS for over two decades. The SWS is a pioneering nonstock, nonprofit, and nonpartisan research organization that regularly surveys various aspects of human well-being in the Philippines, such as hunger and poverty. The methodology of SWS’ quarterly surveys has been standard and consistent over time. All original raw datasets are archived without permanent embargo period and are open to academic researchers. From 1998, there have been 107 statistically representative national surveys of hunger among Filipino families. The paper showed the trends in hunger rates quarterly from 1998 to 2024. It also compared hunger rates among the National Capital Region, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Since SWS surveys include other topics on well-being, the paper analyzed hunger rates among the self-rated poor and nonpoor Filipino families, including those who are self-rated food poor and not food-poor.