Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 25) — Fewer Filipinos felt hungry in the first three months of the year, a recent poll by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed.

The First Quarter 2019 survey on hunger reported that 9.5 percent or an estimated 2.3 million families experienced involuntary hunger from January to March This was less than the 10.5 percent (approximately 2.3 million families) reported in October to December 2018.

This is the second consecutive quarter with a dip in the hunger incidence.

Around 2 million families experienced hunger "only once" or "a few times" in the last three months, which the survey categorized as moderate hunger. Meanwhile, 327,000 families experienced hunger "often" or "always, which SWS categorized as severe hunger.

Hunger incidence went down by 2.2 points in Mindanao to 6.1 percent (around 345,000 families) and by 6.6 points to 11.7 percent (around 387,000 families) in Metro Manila.

It rose by 0.6 of a point to 10.3 percent (approximately 1.1 million families) in Balance Luzon and by 0.8 of a point to 10 percent (approximately 472,000 families) in the Visayas region.

The poll conducted face-to-face interviews of 1,440 adults — 360 representatives each from Balance Luzon, Metro Manila, Visayas and Mindanao — from March 28 to 31.

The survey has a sampling error margin of ±2.6 percent for national percentages, and ±5 percent for regional percentages.