Four measures across 186 countries, from the FAO Suite of Food Security Indicators.
Source: FAO Suite of Food Security Indicators, via Our World in Data. Undernourishment estimates the share of the population whose habitual food consumption is insufficient for a normal active life; it is modelled from food supply and distribution data rather than measured directly. Severe food insecurity comes from the Food Insecurity Experience Scale, which asks people whether they have run out of food or gone a whole day without eating. The cost of a healthy diet is the least expensive combination of local foods meeting dietary guidelines, in purchasing-power-adjusted dollars per person per day — set it against the $3 a day extreme poverty line. Calorie supply measures what is available in the food system, not what people eat, and takes no account of distribution.
The cost of a healthy diet is the least expensive combination of locally available foods that meets national dietary guidelines. It is expressed in purchasing-power-adjusted dollars per person per day.
In most countries it falls between $3 and $4.50.
The international extreme poverty line is $3 a day — for everything. Food, shelter, clothing, transport, medicine.
So in much of the world, eating adequately would consume the entire income of someone at the poverty line, leaving nothing for anything else. The hover panel gives each country’s cost as a multiple of that line.
This is why undernourishment persists in countries with sufficient food supply. The food exists; it costs more than people have.
Undernourishment asks whether the population’s habitual food consumption is enough for a normal active life. It is modelled from national food supply, distribution and requirement data, not measured in households. It is the SDG 2.1.1 indicator and the figure most often quoted as “hunger”.
Severe food insecurity asks people directly. The Food Insecurity Experience Scale surveys individuals on whether they have run out of food, skipped meals, or gone a whole day without eating. Being experience-based, it captures something the modelled measure cannot — and it frequently gives higher figures.
Cost of a healthy diet asks what adequate nutrition would cost. Not what people spend, but the minimum a diet meeting dietary guidelines would require locally.
Calorie supply asks what the food system makes available. It counts what enters the country’s food supply divided by population, before any account of who gets it. A country can show ample calorie supply alongside substantial undernourishment, and the gap between those two is a distribution problem rather than a production one.
Undernourishment is modelled, not observed. It rests on assumptions about how food is distributed within a population, and those assumptions are updated periodically, which can shift a country’s historical series without any real-world change.
The two hunger measures disagree, and both are right. Undernourishment is about caloric adequacy; food insecurity is about the experience of not having enough. A country can have modest undernourishment and substantial food insecurity if people are eating enough calories but anxiously, erratically, or by cutting other essentials.
Calorie supply overstates consumption. It counts food entering the supply chain, including what is later wasted. Read alongside the food waste map, which estimates how much of it never gets eaten.
Coverage varies. Undernourishment reaches 170 countries, the experience-based measure 156, the diet cost 177. High-income countries often stop reporting undernourishment once it falls below the 2.5% floor the FAO uses.
Related work:
Data from the FAO Suite of Food Security Indicators, via Our World in Data.