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Number of people who are severely food insecure

Severe food insecurity is defined by the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES). It is strongly related to insufficient quantity of food (energy).

Number of severely food insecure people 3-year average – FAO – people
Country/area
2015
2022
Absolute Change
Relative Change
Afghanistan5,000,00012,600,000+7,600,000+152%
Albania300,000200,000-100,000-33%
Algeria5,200,0002,500,000-2,700,000-52%
Angola11,300,000
Antigua and Barbuda100,000
Argentina2,500,0005,900,000+3,400,000+136%
Armenia
Australia700,0001,100,000+400,000+57%
Austria100,000200,000+100,000+100%
Azerbaijan100,000
Bahamas100,000
Bangladesh20,900,00019,500,000-1,400,000-7%
Barbados100,000
Belgium200,000
Belize100,000
Benin1,100,0002,100,000+1,000,000+91%
Bosnia and Herzegovina100,000100,000+0+0%
Botswana400,000700,000+300,000+75%
Brazil1,500,00014,300,000+12,800,000+853%
Bulgaria100,000200,000+100,000+100%
Burkina Faso1,600,000
Burundi2,700,000
Cambodia2,600,0002,300,000-300,000-12%
Cameroon5,100,0007,100,000+2,000,000+39%
Canada600,000
Cape Verde100,000
Central African Republic3,500,000
Chad4,600,0006,500,000+1,900,000+41%
Chile500,000700,000+200,000+40%
Colombia2,300,0002,800,000+500,000+22%
Comoros200,000
Congo2,300,000
Costa Rica100,000100,000+0+0%
Cote d'Ivoire1,500,0002,500,000+1,000,000+67%
Croatia100,000100,000+0+0%
Czechia100,000200,000+100,000+100%
Democratic Republic of Congo41,300,000
Denmark100,000100,000+0+0%
Djibouti200,000
Dominica100,000
Dominican Republic2,500,0002,100,000-400,000-16%
East Timor100,000
Ecuador1,000,0002,300,000+1,300,000+130%
Egypt8,199,99911,500,000+3,300,001+40%
El Salvador900,0001,000,000+100,000+11%
Estonia100,000100,000+0+0%
Eswatini200,000
Ethiopia14,900,00024,300,000+9,400,000+63%
Fiji100,000
Finland100,000200,000+100,000+100%
France1,000,0001,500,000+500,000+50%
Gambia700,000
Georgia300,000300,000+0+0%
Germany800,0001,300,000+500,000+63%
Ghana1,500,0002,800,000+1,300,000+87%
Greece300,000200,000-100,000-33%
Grenada100,000
Guatemala2,600,0003,800,000+1,200,000+46%
Guinea-Bissau200,000
Guyana100,000
Haiti4,900,000
Honduras1,300,0002,800,000+1,500,000+115%
Hungary100,000400,000+300,000+300%
Iceland100,000100,000+0+0%
Indonesia1,800,000
Iran7,800,0005,700,000-2,100,000-27%
Ireland200,000100,000-100,000-50%
Israel100,000300,000+200,000+200%
Jamaica700,000800,000+100,000+14%
Japan1,500,000
Kazakhstan100,000
Kenya7,000,00015,100,000+8,100,000+116%
Kiribati100,000
Kuwait200,000100,000-100,000-50%
Kyrgyzstan100,000
Laos500,000
Latvia100,000100,000+0+0%
Lebanon600,000
Lesotho800,000
Liberia1,800,0002,000,000+200,000+11%
Libya700,0001,400,000+700,000+100%
Lithuania100,000100,000+0+0%
Luxembourg100,000100,000+0+0%
Madagascar4,400,000
Malawi8,100,00010,900,000+2,800,000+35%
Malaysia2,400,0002,000,000-400,000-17%
Maldives100,000100,000+0+0%
Mali600,000
Malta100,000100,000+0+0%
Mauritania200,000600,000+400,000+200%
Mauritius100,000100,000+0+0%
Mexico4,099,9993,800,000-299,999-7%
Moldova100,000200,000+100,000+100%
Montenegro100,000100,000+0+0%
Myanmar3,700,000
Namibia700,000800,000+100,000+14%
Nepal2,900,0004,099,999+1,199,999+41%
Netherlands300,000300,000+0+0%
New Zealand100,000200,000+100,000+100%
Niger2,000,000
Nigeria20,300,00049,400,000+29,100,000+143%
North Macedonia100,000100,000+0+0%
Norway100,000100,000+0+0%
Pakistan1,900,00035,600,000+33,700,000+1,774%
Palestine200,000
Papua New Guinea2,700,000
Paraguay100,000400,000+300,000+300%
Peru4,099,9996,900,000+2,800,001+68%
Philippines6,800,000
Poland700,000300,000-400,000-57%
Portugal400,000300,000-100,000-25%
Romania1,100,0001,400,000+300,000+27%
Russia1,000,000
Saint Kitts and Nevis100,000
Saint Lucia100,000100,000+0+0%
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines100,000
Samoa100,000
Sao Tome and Principe100,000
Senegal1,100,000700,000-400,000-36%
Serbia200,000300,000+100,000+50%
Seychelles100,000100,000+0+0%
Sierra Leone2,000,0002,800,000+800,000+40%
Singapore100,000100,000+0+0%
Slovakia100,000100,000+0+0%
Slovenia100,000100,000+0+0%
Somalia7,700,000
South Africa5,000,000
South Korea500,000
South Sudan6,900,000
Spain500,000700,000+200,000+40%
Sri Lanka100,000300,000+200,000+200%
Suriname100,000
Sweden100,000200,000+100,000+100%
Switzerland100,000100,000+0+0%
Tajikistan400,000700,000+300,000+75%
Tanzania10,800,00016,600,000+5,800,000+54%
Thailand1,000,000
Togo1,200,0001,000,000-200,000-17%
Tonga100,000
Trinidad and Tobago200,000
Tunisia1,100,0001,400,000+300,000+27%
Uganda8,100,00010,900,000+2,800,000+35%
Ukraine900,0002,100,000+1,200,000+133%
United Arab Emirates100,000
United Kingdom1,200,0001,700,000+500,000+42%
United States3,500,0002,700,000-800,000-23%
Uruguay100,000
Vanuatu100,000
Vietnam2,000,000
Zimbabwe5,000,0004,300,000-700,000-14%
Other
Africa (FAO)207,000,000308,700,000+101,700,000+49%
Asia (FAO)299,500,000468,500,000+169,000,000+56%
Caribbean (FAO)12,200,000
Central America (FAO)10,600,00014,100,000+3,500,000+33%
Central Asia (FAO)1,200,0003,300,000+2,100,000+175%
Eastern Africa (FAO)86,400,000120,800,000+34,400,000+40%
Eastern Asia (FAO)16,500,00016,700,000+200,000+1%
Eastern Asia and South-eastern Asia (FAO)29,200,00035,300,000+6,100,000+21%
Eastern Europe (FAO)4,300,0005,300,000+1,000,000+23%
Europe (FAO)10,600,00013,500,000+2,900,000+27%
High-income economies (FAO)18,000,00021,700,000+3,700,000+21%
Land Locked Developing Countries (FAO)75,100,000106,500,000+31,400,000+42%
Latin America and the Caribbean (FAO)43,800,00070,100,000+26,300,000+60%
Least Developed Countries (FAO)182,400,000248,100,000+65,700,000+36%
Low Income Food Deficit Countries (FAO)172,600,000251,500,000+78,900,000+46%
Low-income economies (FAO)124,100,000180,700,000+56,600,000+46%
Lower-middle-income economies (FAO)350,000,000564,000,000+214,000,000+61%
Melanesia3,100,000
Middle Africa (FAO)73,800,000
Northern Africa (FAO)22,400,00030,400,000+8,000,000+36%
Northern America (FAO)3,700,0003,300,000-400,000-11%
Northern America and Europe (FAO)14,300,00016,800,000+2,500,000+17%
Northern Europe (FAO)1,800,0002,400,000+600,000+33%
Oceania (FAO)3,500,0004,500,000+1,000,000+29%
Small Island Developing States (FAO)16,900,00016,300,000-600,000-4%
South America (FAO)19,600,00043,800,000+24,200,000+123%
South-eastern Asia (FAO)12,700,00018,600,000+5,900,000+46%
Southern Africa (FAO)5,800,0007,500,000+1,700,000+29%
Southern Asia (FAO)243,500,000390,300,000+146,800,000+60%
Southern Europe (FAO)2,100,0002,200,000+100,000+5%
Sub-Saharan Africa (FAO)184,500,000278,300,000+93,800,000+51%
Upper-middle-income economies (FAO)69,600,00094,400,000+24,800,000+36%
Western Africa (FAO)40,200,00076,200,000+36,000,000+90%
Western Asia (FAO)25,600,00039,600,000+14,000,000+55%
Western Europe (FAO)2,400,0003,600,000+1,200,000+50%
World568,000,000868,600,000+300,600,000+53%
Data

Number of severely food insecure people

3-year average – FAO
See all data and research on:
Agricultural Production

What you should know about this indicator

Item: Number of severely food insecure people (million) (3-year average)

Description: Estimated number of people living in households classified as severely food insecure. It is calculated by multiplying the estimated percentage of people affected by severe food insecurity (I_2.4) by the total population.

Metric: Value

Source
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
March 17, 2025
Next expected update
March 2026
Date range
2015–2022
Unit
people

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

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.

Retrieved on
March 17, 2025
Retrieved from
http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/FS
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations - Food Security and Nutrition: Suite of Food Security Indicators (2024).

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Citations

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To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Number of severely food insecure people”, part of the following publication: Hannah Ritchie, Pablo Rosado and Max Roser (2023) - “Agricultural Production”. Data adapted from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/number-of-people-severely-food-insecure [online resource]
How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data

Full citation

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “Number of severely food insecure people – FAO – 3-year average” [dataset]. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “Food Security and Nutrition: Suite of Food Security Indicators” [original data]. Retrieved March 30, 2025 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/number-of-people-severely-food-insecure

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