FAO · Prevalence of Moderate or Severe Food Insecurity
Food insecurity by country
What share of people have had to eat less or eat worse for lack of money?
Of the 135 countries compared in 2024, Belarus had the lowest reading, 1.0%, and South Sudan had the highest reading, 88.8%. In the middle country the figure was 20.9%. Among the 95 countries measured in every edition since 2015, the middle one moved from 15.3% to 16.5%.
Share
Food insecurity · 2024
Context statistic
Lowest of 135Belarus
1.0%012024 · position · derived
Who leads
The three countries at the lowest end of 135 compared, the three at the other end, and the first on each continent.
1Photo: zedlik , cropped by Jjtkk · CC BY-SA 3.0, greyscale
2
3Photo: Dmitry A. Mottl (original) This derivative work (cropped): SHB2000 · CC BY-SA 3.0, greyscale
Highest in 2024
South Sudan88.8%
Sierra Leone88.1%
Haiti83.5%
Where a country sits says how it compares with the others measured, and nothing about why.
02Every measured country
Food insecurity on a map
Each country is shaded by its value, in five groups holding the same number of countries. Hover a country for its value, or select it to open its profile. Below the map, each continent’s middle country.
Darker is a lower value — the better end.
- 51.6–88.8%
- 29.6–50.3%
- 14.6–28.2%
- 7.6–13.9%
- 1.0–7.4%
- No reading in 2024 (21 measured in an earlier edition)
- Europe
7.9%
the middle country, of 39 measured · 49 members
Belarus1.0%
Ukraine32.0%Lowest and highest reading in Europe.
- Asia
12.4%
the middle country, of 30 measured · 52 members
2 share 1.4%
Afghanistan77.8%Lowest and highest reading in Asia.
- Oceania
18.2%
the middle country, of 5 measured · 21 members
Australia15.1%
Kiribati43.9%Lowest and highest reading in Oceania.
- Americas
27.6%
the middle country, of 23 measured · 48 members
Brazil9.6%Haiti83.5%Lowest and highest reading in Americas.
- Africa
56.7%
the middle country, of 38 measured · 55 members
Algeria17.6%South Sudan88.8%Lowest and highest reading in Africa.
- Every region
21 sub-regions, lowest middle country first
- Western Europe
4.4%
the middle country, of 7 measured · 9 members
2 share 2.6%
France9.4%Lowest and highest reading in Western Europe.
- Northern Europe
7.8%
the middle country, of 10 measured · 13 members
2 share 6.2%
Finland13.3%Lowest and highest reading in Northern Europe.
- Southern Europe
8.1%
the middle country, of 12 measured · 17 members
Italy1.7%
Albania31.8%Lowest and highest reading in Southern Europe.
- Western Asia
9.4%
the middle country, of 9 measured · 19 members
Cyprus1.4%
Yemen74.4%Lowest and highest reading in Western Asia.
- Eastern Europe
9.8%
the middle country, of 10 measured · 10 members
Belarus1.0%Ukraine32.0%Lowest and highest reading in Eastern Europe.
- South-eastern Asia
15.4%
the middle country, of 9 measured · 11 members
Indonesia4.2%
Cambodia36.4%Lowest and highest reading in South-eastern Asia.
- South America
26.9%
the middle country, of 10 measured · 12 members
Brazil9.6%
Peru33.6%Lowest and highest reading in South America.
- Central America
27.9%
the middle country, of 6 measured · 8 members
Belize12.8%
Guatemala49.0%Lowest and highest reading in Central America.
- Southern Asia
30.6%
the middle country, of 6 measured · 9 members
Sri Lanka10.1%Afghanistan77.8%Lowest and highest reading in Southern Asia.
- Caribbean
41.3%
the middle country, of 5 measured · 24 members
Grenada16.5%Haiti83.5%Lowest and highest reading in Caribbean.
- Western Africa
48.8%
the middle country, of 14 measured · 16 members
Mali20.6%Sierra Leone88.1%Lowest and highest reading in Western Africa.
- Southern Africa
54.0%
the middle country, of 5 measured · 5 members
South Africa20.9%
Eswatini61.7%Lowest and highest reading in Southern Africa.
- Eastern Africa
61.1%
the middle country, of 11 measured · 19 members
Mauritius28.2%South Sudan88.8%Lowest and highest reading in Eastern Africa.
- Australia and New Zealand
2 of 2 measured — too few for a middle: Australia, New Zealand.
Australia15.1%
New Zealand17.9%Lowest and highest reading in Australia and New Zealand.
- Central Asia
3 of 5 measured — too few for a middle: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan.
Kazakhstan1.4%
Tajikistan24.0%Lowest and highest reading in Central Asia.
- Eastern Asia
3 of 8 measured — too few for a middle: Japan, Mongolia, South Korea.
Mongolia4.7%
Japan6.1%Lowest and highest reading in Eastern Asia.
- Micronesia
2 of 7 measured — too few for a middle: Kiribati, Palau.
Palau28.1%Kiribati43.9%Lowest and highest reading in Micronesia.
- Middle Africa
4 of 9 measured — too few for a middle: Angola, Cameroon, Chad, DR Congo.
Cameroon60.9%
DR Congo81.7%Lowest and highest reading in Middle Africa.
- Northern Africa
4 of 6 measured — too few for a middle: Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia.
Algeria17.6%
Libya31.6%Lowest and highest reading in Northern Africa.
- Northern America
2 of 4 measured — too few for a middle: Canada, United States.
Canada10.5%
United States10.7%Lowest and highest reading in Northern America.
- Polynesia
1 of 7 measured — too few for a middle: Samoa.
Samoa18.2%Lowest and highest reading in Polynesia.
03The whole field at once
The spread
135 countries, one dot each, on one scale — further right is a higher value. Half the countries are above 20.9%; a quarter are above 42.6%, and a quarter below 9.0%. The bar in each row marks that continent’s middle country.
04All 156 ever measured
Every country
In order, highest value first — position 1 is the highest value, the way FAO’s own tables read. “=” marks a position shared with another country. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) ranks nobody on this measure; the position is derived here by ordering the published values. Because it asks people rather than calculating from the food supply, it can disagree with the prevalence of undernourishment for the same country. FAO's 90% confidence interval is in the download: countries whose intervals overlap may not really differ. Severe food insecurity, a stricter threshold on the same scale, is a separate statistic.
Showing 25 of 156 countries
Values for 2024. The change column compares 2024 with 2023 only; the sparkline covers the recent editions.
052015–2024 · 10 reference years
Over time
Each point is a three-year average, labelled by the middle year of its window. FAO does not publish single-year figures for countries, because samples of about a thousand people are too small to be stable from one year to the next.
- the middle country
- the middle half of countries
- the middle of the 95 countries measured every time
- each continent’s middle country
The same, year by year
| Year | Countries | Middle country | Middle half | Measured every time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 135 | 20.9% | 9.0% – 42.6% | 16.5% |
| 2023 | 135 | 20.6% | 9.2% – 44.2% | 17.6% |
| 2022 | 147 | 25.5% | 9.3% – 46.1% | 18.9% |
| 2021 | 145 | 25.5% | 8.6% – 49.2% | 19.4% |
| 2020 | 143 | 25.3% | 9.1% – 48.8% | 19.0% |
| 2019 | 135 | 23.2% | 8.6% – 43.9% | 17.3% |
| 2018 | 121 | 20.7% | 8.4% – 40.9% | 14.5% |
| 2017 | 114 | 19.2% | 8.2% – 41.5% | 15.1% |
| 2016 | 100 | 16.0% | 8.2% – 39.5% | 15.6% |
| 2015 | 99 | 15.3% | 8.6% – 38.9% | 15.3% |
062023 → 2024
Who rose and fell
The biggest changes in value between the two newest editions — reference years recalculated in one report, not two separate publications. Places are shown second, because they also move when other countries do.
Improved most
before → after
Gambia54.8% → 47.2% · 27th → 30th−7.6
North Macedonia15.2% → 9.2% · 82nd → 98th−6.0
Georgia26.6% → 22.8% · 60th → 67th−3.8
El Salvador45.5% → 41.7% · 32nd → 35th−3.8- Brazil13.3% → 9.6% · 87th → 93rd−3.7
133 countries were measured in both 2023 and 2024.
07Across every edition
Food insecurity in records
The extremes of the statistic. A record reached by more than one country names none of them.
Highest reading on record
89.8%
Population in moderate or severe food insecurity (%)
Lowest reading on record
1.0%
Population in moderate or severe food insecurity (%)
Biggest improvement between editions
−7.6
54.8% → 47.2%
Biggest decline between editions
+10.1
14.2% → 24.3%
Most improved since first measured
−17.2
30.0% → 12.8%
At the top most often
6 of 10
editions, alone at the first-listed end
08The measure
About food insecurity
This is the share of people living in households where adults had to eat less, or settle for worse food, at some point in the year because they lacked money or other resources. It is SDG indicator 2.1.2, measured by FAO by asking people directly with its Food Insecurity Experience Scale.
What the number is: Population in moderate or severe food insecurity (%).
09Where it fits
Connections
Its part in the Country Index, the statistics whose values line up most closely with it across countries, and others on the same subject.
In the Country Index
Context, with no vote
This statistic is published in full under Health & Wellbeing and Poverty & Inequality, but does not help decide any Country Index standing.
Health & WellbeingPoverty & InequalityWhich statistics vote, and why
Moves with
Where food insecurity is higher, these tend to be higher too.
- Prevalence of Severe Food InsecurityKeyFAO · 128 countries in commonρ 0.94
- Infant Mortality RateUN IGME · 135 countries in commonρ 0.83
- Prevalence of UndernourishmentFAO · 127 countries in commonρ 0.83
Moves against
Where food insecurity is higher, these tend to be lower.
- Inequality-adjusted Human Development IndexUNDP Human Development Report Office · 128 countries in commonρ −0.84
- Primary Completion RateUIS · 125 countries in commonρ −0.82
- ND-GAIN Country IndexNotre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative (ND-GAIN), University of Notre Dame · 134 countries in commonρ −0.82
Rank correlation (ρ, from −1 to 1) across countries, on each statistic’s newest edition, out of 342 statistics sharing at least 80 countries with this one. Two statistics that move together do not cause each other.
10Keep reading
Explore further
The subject
The countries at either end
11Questions
Food insecurity: questions and answers
Which country has the lowest food insecurity?
Belarus, at 1.0%, among the 135 countries compared in 2024.
Which country has the highest food insecurity?
South Sudan, at 88.8%, among the 135 countries compared in 2024.
How many countries does the Prevalence of Moderate or Severe Food Insecurity cover?
135 in 2024, and 156 at least once across all editions. The number measured varies from 99 to 147 between editions.
What is the world average food insecurity?
This site does not calculate a world average, which would depend on how countries are weighted. In the middle country of the 135 compared in 2024, the figure was 20.9%.
Is this Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)’s own ranking?
No. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) publishes the values but ranks nobody; the position on this page is derived by Nations Inquiry by ordering the published values, and equal values share a position.
How often is the Prevalence of Moderate or Severe Food Insecurity published?
This site holds 10 reference years, 2015–2024, all recalculated in Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)’s 2026 report on one method — not 10 separate publications.
Where does the data come from, and can I download it?
From Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), under CC BY 4.0. FAOSTAT's Suite of Food Security Indicators, read from FAO's own bulk download. The confidence interval, the shares among adult women and adult men, and the number of people are stored beside it. Every edition is on this site’s Datasets pages as a full table, and downloads as a CSV file with every value unrounded.
12Method
Sources, method and citation
Source
Prevalence of Moderate or Severe Food Insecurity — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
FAOSTAT's Suite of Food Security Indicators, read from FAO's own bulk download. The confidence interval, the shares among adult women and adult men, and the number of people are stored beside it.
Newest edition
Report year 2024Data year 2024
Cite the source as: FAO. 2026. FAOSTAT: Suite of Food Security Indicators. Accessed on 3 October 2026. https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/FS Licence: CC-BY-4.0.
Licence: CC BY 4.0, checked 2026-10-03.
How this page reads the numbers
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) ranks nobody on this measure. The position is derived by Nations Inquiry by ordering the published values; equal values share a position.
- Which end is better follows the publisher’s own reading of the measure.
- A country is named at an end only when it holds that value alone. Where several share it, the page says how many and names none first.
- Values are stored exactly as published and trimmed only for display. “The middle country” is the median of the countries measured, not a world average.
The file itself, column by column — where it came from, what each column holds, and every edition as a CSV — is on its dataset page.
Photographs
The countries at the top of this statistic, from their profiles: Wikimedia Commons, shown in greyscale, each used under the licence named.
- Belarus — zedlik , cropped by Jjtkk, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Cyprus — Kaktus999, CC0
- Kazakhstan — Dmitry A. Mottl (original) This derivative work (cropped): SHB2000, CC BY-SA 3.0
Cite this page
Nations Inquiry (2026). Food insecurity by country: Prevalence of Moderate or Severe Food Insecurity, data from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). https://nationsinquiry.com/statistics/food-insecurity