Food Security and Hunger
Hunger is the most visible indicator of poverty. Every one of us needs food to stay alive and healthy, and families will almost always prioritise food over other expenses. So when they can’t afford to eat, you know they are in crisis. Hunger is an umbrella term used to mean a number of different things. This page explains the definitions and gives you the latest real-time data on who is experiencing which types of hunger and where they live.
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Key numbers
- On 18 Apr 2024 there were 357 million people with insufficient food consumption – a -11.8% change in the last month.
- 188 million people are in food crisis or worse (IPC/CH phase 3 or higher). 1195 thousand people face famine (IPC/CH phase 5)
How many people are hungry and where do they live?
Someone is undernourished if they are not able to acquire enough food to meet the daily minimum dietary energy requirements, over a period of one year. Over time, this makes it much harder to lead a normal, healthy life or develop properly.
Where do people not have enough food?
The COVID-19 pandemic, war in Ukraine, and years of climate-driven crop failures have driven up undernourishment.
As of 18 Apr 2024 there are 357 million people with insecure food consumption.
This chart shows people with insufficient food consumption as a percent of the population.
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How is hunger counted?
Food insecurity is defined in phases based on its severity and impacts.
- 284,214,809 people in 50 countries are stressed: Households have minimal food consumption but are unable to afford some essential non-food expenditures.
- 149,625,017 people in 50 countries are in crisis: Households either have acute malnutrition because they don’t have enough food or can only afford it by selling essential assets.
- 37,483,624 people in 41 countries face a food emergency: Households have very high acute malnutrition, some family members die. They can only eat by selling all their assets.
- 1,195,411 people in 6 countries face catastrophe: Starvation, death, destitution and extreme acute malnutrition.
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⁄What are the lifetime consequences?
When children don’t have access to the right nutrients, it severely impacts their cognitive and physical development. Stunted children (who are smaller than expected for their age) are 19% less likely to be able to read a simple sentence aged 8 and go on to earn 20% less as adults. The effects are largely irreversible beyond the first 1,000 days of a child’s life.
Adequate nutrition starts in the womb. If pregnant women are hungry, it contributes to the likelihood that their children will be wasted or stunted. Thus creating a cycle from a mother’s food insecurity, to her child’s, and potentially further.
Prevalence of stunting in Africa
Children who are undernourished are less resistant to illness and infection, and can face challenges to their physical and cognitive development. Because of the immediate and long term challenges, stunting is often used as a measure for long term changes in malnutrition in different regions and countries.
Stunting in Sub-Saharan Africa decreased from 43% in 2000 to 32% in 2022, showing significant progress in reducing hunger. However many countries still have high levels of stunting above the world average of 22%.
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How much does it cost to feed a family?
Since the COVID-19 Pandemic, the combination of supply chain disruptions and increased demand has made the cost of a healthy diet untenable. In 2020, almost 3.1 billion people could not afford a healthy diet due to increased costs. That’s roughly 40% of people on Earth. Russia’s war in Ukraine and global inflationary pressures almost certainly made a healthy diet unaffordable for millions more.
How has the cost of food changed?
The world’s poorest are especially vulnerable to these shocks – especially maize, which accounts for 30% of all calories consumed in Sub-Saharan Africa.
This chart shows the FAO Food Price Index – monthly change in international prices of food commodities, based on an average of cereal, vegetable oil, dairy, meat, and sugar, weighted by average export shares between 2014 and 2016.