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Number of people who are undernourished

Undernourishment is measured as having a caloric intake that is insufficient to meet the minimum energyrequirements necessary for a given individual.

200120222005201020152020050 million100 million150 million200 million250 millionIndiaPakistanNigeriaBangladeshBrazilChad
Related: What is undernourishment and how is it measured?

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2.1.1 Number of undernourished people - Value (million Number)

What you should know about this indicator

Item: 2.1.1 Number of undernourished people

Metric: Value

Source
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025) – processed by Our World in Data
Last updated
March 17, 2025
Date range
2000–2023
Unit
million Number

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

As the custodian agency of 21 SDG indicators, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is responsible for curating and refining the methodologies of these indicators, collecting data from national sources, ensuring their quality and compatibility with applicable standards and classifications, and disseminating data at global level. This FAOSTAT domain complements the global SDG database administered by the United Nations Statistical Division, as well as FAO’s SDG indicators portal, by providing access to the available data for each of these indicators. Please click the metadata link on the right hand navigation column for an abridged version of the methodology for compiling each of these indicators, a description of data sources and the relevant contact persons responsible for each indicator in the Organization. For a more detailed description of the methodology, data sources and reporting procedures, please follow the link to the official SDG indicator metadata document available at the bottom of each summary metadata page in the document on the right.

Retrieved on
March 17, 2025
Retrieved from
http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/SDGB
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 - SDG Indicators: SDG Indicators (2025).

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All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

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Citations

How to cite this page

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: 2.1.1 Number of undernourished people - Value (million Number)”. Our World in Data (2025). Data adapted from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/number-undernourished [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 (2025) – processed by Our World in Data

Full citation

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025) – processed by Our World in Data. “2.1.1 Number of undernourished people - Value (million Number)” [dataset]. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “SDG Indicators: SDG Indicators” [original data]. Retrieved March 22, 2025 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/number-undernourished

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