According to the Global Hunger Index 2024, which was adopted by the International Food Policy Research Institute, Somalia was the most affected by hunger and malnutrition, with an index of 44.1. Yemen and Chad followed behind. The World Hunger Index combines three indicators: undernourishment, child underweight, and child mortality. Sub-Saharan Africa most affected The index is dominated by countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. In the region, more than one fifth of the population is undernourished . In terms of individuals, however, South Asia has the highest number of undernourished people. Globally, there are 735 million people that are considered undernourished or starving. A lack of food is increasing in over 20 countries worldwide. Undernourishment worldwide The term malnutrition includes both undernutrition and overnutrition. Undernutrition occurs when an individual cannot maintain normal bodily functions such as growth, recovering from disease, and both learning and physical work. Some conditions such as diarrhea, malaria, and HIV/AIDS can all have a negative impact on undernutrition. Rural and agricultural communities can be especially susceptible to hunger during certain seasons. The annual hunger gap occurs when a family’s food supply may run out before the next season’s harvest is available and can result in malnutrition. Nevertheless, the prevalence of people worldwide that are undernourished has decreased over the last decades, from 18.7 percent in 1990-92 to 9.2 percent in 2022, but it has slightly increased since the outbreak of COVID-19. According to the Global Hunger Index, the reduction of global hunger has stagnated over the past decade.

Historical dataset showing World hunger statistics by year from 2001 to 2022.

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger globally and by region and country. Calculated each year by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the GHI highlights successes and failures in hunger reduction and provide insights into the drivers of hunger, and food and nutrition security. The 2013 GHI has been calculated for 120 countries for which data on the three component indicators are available and for which measuring hung er is considered most relevant. The GHI calculation excludes some higher income countries because the prevalence of hunger there is very low. The GHI is only as current as the data for its three component indicators. This year's GHI reflects the most recent available country level data for the three component indicators spanning the period 2008 to 2012. Besides the most recent GHI scores, this dataset also contains the GHI scores for four other reference periods- 1990, 1995, 2000, and 2005. A country's GHI score is calculated by averaging the percentage of the population that is undernourished, the percentage of children youn ger than five years old who are underweight, and the percentage of children dying before the age of five. This calculation results in a 100 point scale on which zero is the best score (no hunger) and 100 the worst, although neither of these extremes is reached in practice. The three component indicators used to calculate the GHI scores draw upon data from the following sources: 1. Undernourishment: Updated data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) were used for the 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, and 2013 GHI scores. Undernourishment data for the 2013 GHI are for 2010-2012. 2. Child underweight: The "child underweight" component indicator of the GHI scores includes the latest additions to the World Health Organization's (WHO) Global Database on Child Growth and Malnutrition, and additional data from the joint database by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), WHO and the World Bank; the most recent Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) and Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey reports; and statistical tables from UNICEF. For the 2013 GHI, data on child underweight are for the latest year for which data are available in the period 2008-2012. 3. Child mortality: Updated data from the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation were used for the 1990, 1995, 2000, and 2005, and 2013 GHI scores. For the 2013 GHI, data on child mortality are for 2011.

According to the Global Hunger Index, India had an index value of **** in 2023. The composition of the index was a combination of different indicators such as undernourishment, child underweight, and child mortality. India's score indicates a serious level of hunger crisis, placing the country at a position of ***** out of 121 countries that year. However, the country had improved the situation from ** index points falling in the category of alarming level in 2000.

Abstract

Key components of the WFSO database cover the prevalence of severe food insecurity, including estimates for countries lacking official data, population sizes of the severely food insecure, required safety net financing, and corresponding estimates expressed on the Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) scale. Data is presented in a user-friendly format.

WFSO data primarily relies on hunger and malnutrition data from the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report, led by the Food and agriculture Organization (FAO) in collaboration with multiple UN agencies. WFSO complements SOFI data by providing estimates for unreported countries. Historical estimates are produced with a machine learning model leveraging World Development Indicators (WDI) for global coverage. This model has been extended to express outputs on the IPC scale by converting estimates using a nonlinear beta regression estimated on a normalized range, and distributionally adjusted using a smooth threshold transformation.

Financing needs for safety nets are calculated similarly to past approaches by the International Development Association (IDA) to assess food insecurity response needs (IDA (2020) and IDA (2021)). Preliminary estimates and projections rely on the same model and incorporate International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s World Economic Outlook (WEO) growth and inflation forecasts. WEO data reflects the IMF's expert analysis from various sources, including government agencies, central banks, and international organizations.

Minor gaps in WDI data inflation data are replaced with unofficial WEO estimates. Minor inflation data gaps not covered by both, are replaced with unofficial inflation estimates from the World Bank's Real Time Food Prices (RTFP) data.

The WFSO is updated three times a year, coinciding with IMF's WEO and SOFI releases. It provides food security projections that align with economic forecasts, aiding policymakers in integrating food security into economic planning.

The WFSO database serves various purposes, aiding World Bank economists and researchers in economic analysis, policy recommendations, and the assessment of global financing needs to address food insecurity.

Additionally, the WFSO enhances transparency in global food security data by tracking regional and global figures and breaking them down by individual countries. Historical estimates support research and long-term trend assessments, especially in the context of relating outlooks to past food security crises.

Geographic coverage

World

Geographic coverage notes

191 countries and territories mutually included by the World Bank's WDI and IMF's WEO databases. The country coverage is based on mutual inclusion in both the World Bank World Development Indicators database and the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook database. Some countries and territories may not be covered. Every attempt is made to provide comprehensive coverage. To produce complete historical predictions, missing data in the WDI are completed with unofficial data from the WEO and the World Bank's RTFP data when inflation data is not available in either database. Final gaps in the WDI and WEO are interpolated using a Kernel-based pattern-matching algorithm. See background documentation for equations.

Analysis unit

Country

Kind of data

Process-produced data [pro]

Millions of people are at risk of starvation worldwide, many of these in countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Across all five severity stages, Nigeria had the highest number of people at risk of starvation in 2025, with over 200 million. Almost 175 million of these fell within the two least severe stages.

In 2023, the rate of undernourishment worldwide was 9.1 percent. The region with the largest share of undernourished people was Sub-Saharan Africa, with 23.2 percent. Undernourished people worldwideSouthern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa have some of the highest numbers of undernourished people in the world, totaling 281 million and 278 million, respectively, in 2023. Based on the World Hunger Index 2024, Somalia and Yemen were among the most affected countries by hunger and malnutrition. Worldwide, about 733.4 million people were suffering from malnutrition in 2023. MalnutritionMalnutrition occurs when a person’s diet consists of too little or too much of certain nutrients. Undernutrition occurs when a person does not intake enough calories, protein, or micronutrients. One of the primary causes of malnutrition is due to limited or a lack of accessibility to affordable, nutritious foods. Malnutrition is considered to contribute to over a third of child deaths globally. In Asia, an estimated 77 million cases of stunting, which is the primary effect of malnutrition, were recorded for children under the age of five in 2022. The FAO reports that food security and nutrition commitments by national governments are essential in eradicating the world hunger problem. Agricultural productivity, accessibility to land, services, and markets, rural development strategies, and social protection are needed to ensure a reduction in malnutrition.

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) offers a useful multidimensional overview of global hunger. The 2011 GHI is the sixth in an annual series that records the state of global, regional, and national hunger.

The GHI captures three dimensions of hunger: insufficient availability of calories, shortfalls in the nutritional status of children, and child mortality. Accordingly, the Index includes the following three equally weighted indicators: the proportion of people who are undernourished, as estimated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO); the prevalence of underweight in children under the age of five, as compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO); and the under-five mortality rate, as reported by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The 2011 index includes GHI values for four time periods, recalculated using the latest source data, to allow an exploration of change over time.

United States US: Prevalence of Severe Food Insecurity in the Population: % of population data was reported at 0.800 % in 2022. This records an increase from the previous number of 0.700 % for 2021. United States US: Prevalence of Severe Food Insecurity in the Population: % of population data is updated yearly, averaging 0.800 % from Dec 2015 (Median) to 2022, with 8 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1.100 % in 2015 and a record low of 0.700 % in 2021. United States US: Prevalence of Severe Food Insecurity in the Population: % of population data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.World Bank.WDI: Social: Health Statistics. The percentage of people in the population who live in households classified as severely food insecure. A household is classified as severely food insecure when at least one adult in the household has reported to have been exposed, at times during the year, to several of the most severe experiences described in the FIES questions, such as to have been forced to reduce the quantity of the food, to have skipped meals, having gone hungry, or having to go for a whole day without eating because of a lack of money or other resources.;Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO);;

Abstract

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 2.1 commits countries to end hunger, ensure access by all people to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year around. Indicator 2.1.2, “Prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES)”, provides internationally-comparable estimates of the proportion of the population facing difficulties in accessing food. More detailed background information is available at http://www.fao.org/in-action/voices-of-the-hungry/fies/en/ .

The FIES-based indicators are compiled using the FIES survey module, containing 8 questions. Two indicators can be computed: 1. The proportion of the population experiencing moderate or severe food insecurity (SDG indicator 2.1.2), 2. The proportion of the population experiencing severe food insecurity.

These data were collected by FAO through the Gallup World Poll. General information on the methodology can be found here: https://www.gallup.com/178667/gallup-world-poll-work.aspx. National institutions can also collect FIES data by including the FIES survey module in nationally representative surveys.

Microdata can be used to calculate the indicator 2.1.2 at national level. Instructions for computing this indicator are described in the methodological document available under the "DOCUMENTATION" tab above. Disaggregating results at sub-national level is not encouraged because estimates will suffer from substantial sampling and measurement error.

Geographic coverage

National coverage

Analysis unit

Individuals

Universe

Individuals of 15 years or older with access to landline and/or mobile phones.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

NA Exclusions: NA Design effect: 1.71

Mode of data collection

Computer Assisted Telephone Interview [cati]

Cleaning operations

Statistical validation assesses the quality of the FIES data collected by testing their consistency with the assumptions of the Rasch model. This analysis involves the interpretation of several statistics that reveal 1) items that do not perform well in a given context, 2) cases with highly erratic response patterns, 3) pairs of items that may be redundant, and 4) the proportion of total variance in the population that is accounted for by the measurement model.

Sampling error estimates

The margin of error is estimated as 4.1. This is calculated around a proportion at the 95% confidence level. The maximum margin of error was calculated assuming a reported percentage of 50% and takes into account the design effect.

The Suite of Food Security Indicators presents the core set of food security indicators. Following the recommendation of experts gathered in the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) Round Table on hunger measurement, hosted at FAO headquarters in September 2011, an initial set of indicators aiming to capture various aspects of food insecurity is presented here. The choice of the indicators has been informed by expert judgment and the availability of data with sufficient coverage to enable comparisons across regions and over time. Many of these indicators are produced and published elsewhere by FAO and other international organizations. They are reported here in a single database with the aim of building a wide food security information system. More indicators will be added to this set as more data will become available. Indicators are classified along the four dimensions of food security -- availability, access, utilization and stability.

The data included in Data360 is a subset of the data available from the source. Please refer to the source for complete data and methodology details.

This collection includes only a subset of indicators from the source dataset.

The 2012 GHI report focuses particularly on the issue of how to ensure sustainable food security under conditions of water, land, and energy stress. Demographic changes, rising incomes and associated consumption patterns, and climate change, alongside persistent poverty and inadequate policies and institutions, are all placing serious pressure on natural resources. In this report, IFPRI describes the evidence on land, water, and energy scarcity in developing countries and offers two visions of a future global food system—an unsustainable scenario in which current trends in resource use continue, and a sustainable scenario in which access to food, modern energy, and clean water improves significantly and ecosystem degradation is halted or reversed. Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe provide on-the-ground perspectives on the issues of land tenure and title as well as the impacts of scarce land, water, and energy on poor people in Sierra Leone and Tanzania and describe the work of their organizations in helping to alleviate these impacts. See other formats of data here: Linked Open Data (LOD) -- [OWL Version] and [RDF Version] See visual data at: Data Visualization

Switzerland Prevalence of Severe Food Insecurity in the Population: % of population data was reported at 0.600 % in 2021. This records an increase from the previous number of 0.000 % for 2020. Switzerland Prevalence of Severe Food Insecurity in the Population: % of population data is updated yearly, averaging 0.700 % from Dec 2015 (Median) to 2021, with 7 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1.500 % in 2015 and a record low of 0.000 % in 2020. Switzerland Prevalence of Severe Food Insecurity in the Population: % of population data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Switzerland – Table CH.World Bank.WDI: Social: Health Statistics. The percentage of people in the population who live in households classified as severely food insecure. A household is classified as severely food insecure when at least one adult in the household has reported to have been exposed, at times during the year, to several of the most severe experiences described in the FIES questions, such as to have been forced to reduce the quantity of the food, to have skipped meals, having gone hungry, or having to go for a whole day without eating because of a lack of money or other resources.;Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO);;

HungerMapLIVE is the World Food Programme (WFP)’s global hunger monitoring system. It combines key metrics from various data sources – such as food security information, weather, population size, conflict, hazards, nutrition information and macro-economic data – to help assess, monitor and predict the magnitude and severity of hunger in near real-time. The resulting analysis is displayed on an interactive map that helps WFP staff, key decision makers and the broader humanitarian community to make more informed and timely decisions relating to food security.

The platform covers 94 countries, including countries where WFP has operations as well as most lower and lower-middle income countries (as classified by the World Bank).

This map is part of SDGs Today. Please see sdgstoday.orgMillions of people around the world lack secure access to sufficient amounts of food for a healthy and active life. Ensuring food security is a critical step towards ending hunger and meeting SDG 2. The World Food Programme (WFP) has developed the HungerMapLIVE, a global hunger monitoring system that tracks and predicts hunger in near-real time.WFP tracks the latest food security trends using computer-assisted telephone interviewing through call centers. Data is collected on a rolling basis, spread evenly over the past month or over a three-month period. Daily updates are then produced showing a snapshot of the current food security situation (with 2-4-day time lag for data quality). To compensate for non-response and attrition, new observations are added in each administrative area following the sample design specific for each country.Where daily updated survey data are not available for or a country's highest administrative subdivision, the prevalence of people with poor or borderline food consumption (FCS) is estimated with a predictive model (nowcasting). The models use FCS data spanning 63 countries from 2006, aggregated at the level of first-order administrative divisions. The input variables used to make the predictions were built using information about geographical position, time of the year, population density, nightlight intensity, undernourishment and other indicators. For areas where past FCS measurements are available, the last available data point is also included as input variable.Find more information about the methodology here. For questions about the data, please contact wfp.mvam@wfp.org.

HungerMapLIVE is the World Food Programme (WFP)’s global hunger monitoring system. It combines key metrics from various data sources – such as food security information, weather, population size, conflict, hazards, nutrition information and macro-economic data – to help assess, monitor and predict the magnitude and severity of hunger in near real-time. The resulting analysis is displayed on an interactive map that helps WFP staff, key decision makers and the broader humanitarian community to make more informed and timely decisions relating to food security.

The platform covers 94 countries, including countries where WFP has operations as well as most lower and lower-middle income countries (as classified by the World Bank).

HungerMapLIVE is the World Food Programme (WFP)’s global hunger monitoring system. It combines key metrics from various data sources – such as food security information, weather, population size, conflict, hazards, nutrition information and macro-economic data – to help assess, monitor and predict the magnitude and severity of hunger in near real-time. The resulting analysis is displayed on an interactive map that helps WFP staff, key decision makers and the broader humanitarian community to make more informed and timely decisions relating to food security.

The platform covers 94 countries, including countries where WFP has operations as well as most lower and lower-middle income countries (as classified by the World Bank).

Ireland IE: Prevalence of Moderate or Severe Food Insecurity in the Population: % of population data was reported at 4.200 % in 2022. This records a decrease from the previous number of 5.400 % for 2021. Ireland IE: Prevalence of Moderate or Severe Food Insecurity in the Population: % of population data is updated yearly, averaging 6.900 % from Dec 2015 (Median) to 2022, with 8 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 8.900 % in 2015 and a record low of 4.200 % in 2022. Ireland IE: Prevalence of Moderate or Severe Food Insecurity in the Population: % of population data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Ireland – Table IE.World Bank.WDI: Social: Health Statistics. The percentage of people in the population who live in households classified as moderately or severely food insecure. A household is classified as moderately or severely food insecure when at least one adult in the household has reported to have been exposed, at times during the year, to low quality diets and might have been forced to also reduce the quantity of food they would normally eat because of a lack of money or other resources.;Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO);;

HungerMapLIVE is the World Food Programme (WFP)’s global hunger monitoring system. It combines key metrics from various data sources – such as food security information, weather, population size, conflict, hazards, nutrition information and macro-economic data – to help assess, monitor and predict the magnitude and severity of hunger in near real-time. The resulting analysis is displayed on an interactive map that helps WFP staff, key decision makers and the broader humanitarian community to make more informed and timely decisions relating to food security.

The platform covers 94 countries, including countries where WFP has operations as well as most lower and lower-middle income countries (as classified by the World Bank).

HungerMapLIVE is the World Food Programme (WFP)’s global hunger monitoring system. It combines key metrics from various data sources – such as food security information, weather, population size, conflict, hazards, nutrition information and macro-economic data – to help assess, monitor and predict the magnitude and severity of hunger in near real-time. The resulting analysis is displayed on an interactive map that helps WFP staff, key decision makers and the broader humanitarian community to make more informed and timely decisions relating to food security.

The platform covers 94 countries, including countries where WFP has operations as well as most lower and lower-middle income countries (as classified by the World Bank).