UNICEF · Severe Child Food Poverty, Children Aged 6–23 Months
Severe child food poverty by country
What share of young children eat from no more than two food groups a day?
Of the 109 countries compared in the 2024 edition, Belarus had the lowest reading, 1.169%, and Somalia had the highest reading, 63.081%. In the middle country the figure was 21.381%. 4 readings from before 2014 are listed but not compared.
Share
Severe child food poverty · the 2024 edition
Context statistic
Lowest of 109Belarus
1.169%01the 2024 edition · position · derived
Who leads
The three countries at the lowest end of 109 compared, the three at the other end, and the first on each continent.
1Photo: zedlik , cropped by Jjtkk · CC BY-SA 3.0, greyscale
2Photo: Lošmi derivative work: Jjtkk · CC BY-SA 3.0, greyscale
3Photo: Martin St-Amant (S23678) · CC BY 3.0, greyscale
Highest in the 2024 edition
Somalia63.081%
Guinea54.312%
Guinea-Bissau52.781%
Where a country sits says how it compares with the others measured, and nothing about why.
02Every measured country
Severe child food poverty 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.
- 32.219–63.081%
- 24.291–31.766%
- 14.403–23.700%
- 8.937–14.347%
- 1.169–8.847%
- Hatched: a reading from before 2014, listed but not compared (4)
- No reading in the 2024 edition
- Europe
7.906%
the middle country, of 5 measured · 49 members
Belarus1.169%
Albania18.178%Lowest and highest reading in Europe.
- Americas
9.039%
the middle country, of 20 measured · 48 members
Peru2.255%
Haiti31.576%Lowest and highest reading in Americas.
- Asia
13.666%
the middle country, of 33 measured · 52 members
Sri Lanka4.795%
Afghanistan48.725%Lowest and highest reading in Asia.
- Oceania
22.646%
the middle country, of 9 measured · 21 members
Fiji7.822%
Kiribati34.474%Lowest and highest reading in Oceania.
- Africa
30.185%
the middle country, of 42 measured · 55 members
Tunisia9.452%Somalia63.081%Lowest and highest reading in Africa.
- Every region
18 sub-regions, lowest middle country first
- South America
6.994%
the middle country, of 8 measured · 12 members
Peru2.255%
Suriname23.444%Lowest and highest reading in South America.
- Central America
9.043%
the middle country, of 6 measured · 8 members
Costa Rica3.004%
Honduras9.930%Lowest and highest reading in Central America.
- Central Asia
11.073%
the middle country, of 5 measured · 5 members
Turkmenistan8.386%
Tajikistan32.219%Lowest and highest reading in Central Asia.
- Caribbean
12.041%
the middle country, of 6 measured · 24 members
Dominican Republic7.810%Haiti31.576%Lowest and highest reading in Caribbean.
- Western Asia
14.375%
the middle country, of 10 measured · 19 members
Georgia7.601%
Syria30.400%Lowest and highest reading in Western Asia.
- South-eastern Asia
15.883%
the middle country, of 8 measured · 11 members
Vietnam8.522%
Myanmar34.520%Lowest and highest reading in South-eastern Asia.
- Eastern Africa
24.291%
the middle country, of 13 measured · 19 members
Rwanda12.399%Somalia63.081%Lowest and highest reading in Eastern Africa.
- Middle Africa
28.600%
the middle country, of 7 measured · 9 members
São Tomé and Príncipe22.321%
Republic of the Congo34.708%Lowest and highest reading in Middle Africa.
- Southern Asia
29.839%
the middle country, of 8 measured · 9 members
Sri Lanka4.795%Afghanistan48.725%Lowest and highest reading in Southern Asia.
- Western Africa
36.107%
the middle country, of 15 measured · 16 members
Ghana21.381%Guinea54.312%Lowest and highest reading in Western Africa.
- Eastern Asia
2 of 8 measured — too few for a middle: China, Mongolia.
Mongolia9.712%
China10.200%Lowest and highest reading in Eastern Asia.
- Eastern Europe
1 of 10 measured — too few for a middle: Belarus.
Belarus1.169%Lowest and highest reading in Eastern Europe.
- Melanesia
3 of 5 measured — too few for a middle: Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu.
Fiji7.822%
Papua New Guinea25.971%Lowest and highest reading in Melanesia.
- Micronesia
3 of 7 measured — too few for a middle: Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru.
Nauru12.174%Kiribati34.474%Lowest and highest reading in Micronesia.
- Northern Africa
4 of 6 measured — too few for a middle: Algeria, Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia.
Tunisia9.452%
Sudan33.786%Lowest and highest reading in Northern Africa.
- Polynesia
3 of 7 measured — too few for a middle: Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu.
Tonga12.756%
Samoa22.646%Lowest and highest reading in Polynesia.
- Southern Africa
3 of 5 measured — too few for a middle: Eswatini, Lesotho, South Africa.
Eswatini18.763%
Lesotho31.290%Lowest and highest reading in Southern Africa.
- Southern Europe
4 of 17 measured — too few for a middle: Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia.
Serbia1.606%Albania18.178%Lowest and highest reading in Southern Europe.
03The whole field at once
The spread
109 countries, one dot each, on one scale — further right is a higher value. Half the countries are above 21.381%; a quarter are above 30.946%, and a quarter below 9.766%. The bar in each row marks that continent’s middle country.
04All 113 ever measured
Every country
In order, highest value first — position 1 is the highest value, the way UNICEF’s own tables read. “=” marks a position shared with another country. UNICEF ranks nobody on this measure; the position is derived here by ordering the published values. It is a poverty of diet, not of income: a household above an income poverty line can still feed a young child this narrowly. These surveys are run mainly in low- and middle-income countries, so most wealthy countries are absent rather than low.
Showing 25 of 113 countries
Values for the 2024 edition.
05In this edition
Severe child food poverty in records
The extremes of the statistic. A record reached by more than one country names none of them.
Highest reading
63.081%
Children aged 6-23 months fed from at most 2 of 8 food groups (%)
Lowest reading
1.169%
Children aged 6-23 months fed from at most 2 of 8 food groups (%)
06The measure
About severe child food poverty
This is the share of children aged 6 to 23 months who ate from no more than two of eight food groups the previous day — what UNICEF calls severe child food poverty. A child fed this narrowly, often on little more than a starchy staple or milk, is far more likely to become malnourished.
What the number is: Children aged 6-23 months fed from at most 2 of 8 food groups (%).
07Where 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 severe child food poverty is higher, these tend to be higher too.
- Infant Mortality RateUN IGME · 109 countries in commonρ 0.76
- Under-Five Mortality RateKeyUN IGME · 109 countries in commonρ 0.76
- Stillbirth RateUN IGME · 109 countries in commonρ 0.75
Moves against
Where severe child food poverty is higher, these tend to be lower.
- Minimum Dietary Diversity, Children Aged 6–23 MonthsUNICEF · 107 countries in commonρ −0.91
- Inequality-adjusted Human Development IndexUNDP Human Development Report Office · 98 countries in commonρ −0.78
- Human Development IndexKeyUNDP Human Development Report Office · 108 countries in commonρ −0.76
Rank correlation (ρ, from −1 to 1) across countries, on each statistic’s newest edition, out of 291 statistics sharing at least 80 countries with this one. Two statistics that move together do not cause each other.
08Keep reading
Explore further
The subject
The data, edition by edition
09Questions
Severe child food poverty: questions and answers
Which country has the lowest severe child food poverty?
Belarus, at 1.169%, among the 109 countries compared in the 2024 edition.
Which country has the highest severe child food poverty?
Somalia, at 63.081%, among the 109 countries compared in the 2024 edition.
How many countries does the Severe Child Food Poverty, Children Aged 6–23 Months cover?
109 in the 2024 edition, and 113 at least once across all editions.
What is the world average severe child food poverty?
This site does not calculate a world average, which would depend on how countries are weighted. In the middle country of the 109 compared in the 2024 edition, the figure was 21.381%.
Is this UNICEF’s own ranking?
No. UNICEF 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 Severe Child Food Poverty, Children Aged 6–23 Months published?
This site holds one edition, describing 2024.
Where does the data come from, and can I download it?
From UNICEF, under CC BY 3.0 IGO. From UNICEF's Global Infant and Young Child Feeding Databases, read from UNICEF's own data warehouse, which carries more decimal places than UNICEF's published workbooks. Each reading is marked as re-analysed by UNICEF or as reported by the survey itself. Every edition is on this site’s Datasets pages as a full table, and downloads as a CSV file with every value unrounded.
10Method
Sources, method and citation
Source
Severe Child Food Poverty, Children Aged 6–23 Months — UNICEF
From UNICEF's Global Infant and Young Child Feeding Databases, read from UNICEF's own data warehouse, which carries more decimal places than UNICEF's published workbooks. Each reading is marked as re-analysed by UNICEF or as reported by the survey itself.
Newest edition
Report year 2024Data year not recorded
Cite the source as: UNICEF. Global Infant and Young Child Feeding Databases, December 2025. New York: UNICEF.
Licence: CC BY 3.0 IGO, checked 2026-10-03.
How this page reads the numbers
- UNICEF 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.
- The file gives each country’s most recent reading, so the rows are from different years. Readings from before 2014 are listed but left out of every comparison on this page.
- 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
- Serbia — Lošmi derivative work: Jjtkk, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Peru — Martin St-Amant (S23678), CC BY 3.0
Cite this page
Nations Inquiry (2026). Severe child food poverty by country: Severe Child Food Poverty, Children Aged 6–23 Months, data from UNICEF. https://nationsinquiry.com/statistics/severe-child-food-poverty