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Share of the population that is undernourished

Share of individuals that have a daily food intake that is insufficient to provide the amount of dietary energy required to maintain a normal, active, and healthy life.

Share of people that are undernourished FAO – percent
Country/area
2000
2023
Absolute Change
Relative Change
Afghanistan
Albania
Algeria
Angola
Argentina
Armenia
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belgium
Belize
Benin
Bolivia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
Brazil
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Cambodia
Cameroon
Canada
Cape Verde
Central African Republic
Chad
Chile
China
Colombia
Comoros
Congo
Costa Rica
Cote d'Ivoire
Croatia
Cuba
Cyprus
Czechia
Democratic Republic of Congo
Denmark
Djibouti
Dominica
Dominican Republic
East Timor
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Estonia
Eswatini
Ethiopia
Fiji
Finland
France
French Polynesia
Gabon
Gambia
Georgia
Germany
Ghana
Greece
Guatemala
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Guyana
Haiti
Honduras
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kiribati
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Latvia
Lebanon
Liberia
Libya
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macao
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Mali
Malta
Mauritania
Mauritius
Mexico
Moldova
Mongolia
Montenegro
Morocco
Mozambique
Myanmar
Namibia
Nepal
Netherlands
New Caledonia
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
North Korea
North Macedonia
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Rwanda
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Samoa
Sao Tome and Principe
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Serbia
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Slovakia
Slovenia
Solomon Islands
Somalia
South Africa
South Korea
South Sudan
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Suriname
Sweden
Switzerland
Syria
Taiwan
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Thailand
Togo
Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United States
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Venezuela
Vietnam
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe
Other
Africa (FAO)22.9%20.4%-2.5 pp-11%
Americas (FAO)6.5%3.9%-2.6 pp-40%
Asia (FAO)14.1%8.1%-6.0 pp-43%
Caribbean (FAO)17.3%17.2%-0.1 pp-1%
Central America (FAO)7.7%5.8%-1.9 pp-25%
Central Asia (FAO)14.5%3.0%-11.5 pp-79%
Eastern Africa (FAO)38.2%28.6%-9.6 pp-25%
Eastern Asia (FAO)10.1%2.5%-7.6 pp-75%
Eastern Asia and South-eastern Asia (FAO)12.8%2.7%-10.1 pp-79%
Eastern Europe (FAO)4.0%2.5%-1.5 pp-38%
Europe (FAO)2.5%2.5%+0.0 pp+0%
High-income economies (FAO)2.5%2.5%+0.0 pp+0%
Land Locked Developing Countries (FAO)30.7%19.3%-11.4 pp-37%
Latin America and the Caribbean (FAO)10.4%6.2%-4.2 pp-40%
Least Developed Countries (FAO)31.6%22.4%-9.2 pp-29%
Low Income Food Deficit Countries (FAO)31.4%25.8%-5.6 pp-18%
Low-income economies (FAO)33.6%29.1%-4.5 pp-13%
Lower-middle-income economies (FAO)17.1%13.5%-3.6 pp-21%
Melanesia22.7%24.8%+2.1 pp+9%
Middle Africa (FAO)36.7%30.8%-5.9 pp-16%
Northern Africa (FAO)8.5%7.8%-0.7 pp-8%
Northern America (FAO)2.5%2.5%+0.0 pp+0%
Northern America and Europe (FAO)2.5%2.5%+0.0 pp+0%
Northern Europe (FAO)2.5%2.5%+0.0 pp+0%
Oceania (FAO)6.7%7.3%+0.6 pp+9%
Polynesia3.9%5.9%+2.0 pp+51%
Small Island Developing States (FAO)17.3%16.8%-0.5 pp-3%
South America (FAO)10.7%5.2%-5.5 pp-51%
South-eastern Asia (FAO)20.2%6.1%-14.1 pp-70%
Southern Africa (FAO)5.0%9.6%+4.6 pp+92%
Southern Asia (FAO)16.3%13.9%-2.4 pp-15%
Southern Europe (FAO)2.5%2.5%+0.0 pp+0%
Sub-Saharan Africa (FAO)26.7%23.2%-3.5 pp-13%
Upper-middle-income economies (FAO)10.6%2.5%-8.1 pp-76%
Western Africa (FAO)15.0%16.0%+1.0 pp+7%
Western Asia (FAO)10.1%12.4%+2.3 pp+23%
Western Europe (FAO)2.5%2.5%+0.0 pp+0%
World12.8%9.1%-3.7 pp-29%
Related: What is undernourishment and how is it measured?
Data

Share of people that are undernourished

FAO
See all data and research on:
Agricultural Production

What you should know about this indicator

Item: 2.1.1 Prevalence of undernourishment

Metric: Value

Source
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
March 17, 2025
Next expected update
March 2026
Date range
2000–2023
Unit
percent

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Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

This dataset 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.

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.

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).

How we process data at Our World in Data

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.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.

Read about our data pipeline

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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: Share of people that are undernourished”, 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/prevalence-of-undernourishment [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) – with major processing by Our World in Data

Full citation

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “Share of people that are undernourished – FAO” [dataset]. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “SDG Indicators: SDG Indicators” [original data]. Retrieved April 6, 2025 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/prevalence-of-undernourishment

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