Food insecurity and hunger are global problems for many decades now. Despite the long-lasting years of fighting against the factors that caused these problems, the food-insecure rate has been increasing rapidly.
In this article, we’re covering the countries that have the biggest problems with hunger and food insecurity, the number of people who are directly impacted by them, factors that led countries to desperation, and more.
Keep reading and get all the data.
5 Key Food Insecurity Statistics By Country
- Madagascar has 450,000 people who face chronic food insecurity.
- The Democratic Republic of Congo has the largest food crisis.
- Somalia has 5.6 million food-insecure people.
- In 2021, 42% of Haiti’s population were faced acute food insecurity.
- One-quarter of the world’s undernourished people live in India.
16 Food Insecurity Statistics By Country
1. Around 697 million people are severely food insecure.
The research conducted by Our World in Data stated that 697 million people in the world don’t have food security on a daily basis. That is around 9% of the total world population. This is a high percentage and a high number of people who do not have the essentials for life.
Source: Our World in Data
2. Sierra Leone has the highest hunger levels in West Africa.
Sierra Leone is facing the pandemic’s impact on food insecurity. More than a quarter of the country’s population is undernourished, a child mortality rate is up to 10.9%, and people are struggling every day with food shortages.
Source: Concern Worldwide US
3. Madagascar has high rates of food-insecure people and undernourishment.
Madagascar is one of the 10 countries where hunger has increased even more. The country has 1.9 million food-insecure people. That number includes 450,000 people who face chronic food insecurity. Besides food shortages, almost half of the country’s population (43.5%) is fighting undernourishment.
Source: Concern Worldwide US
4. The Democratic Republic of Congo has 27 million food-insecure people.
According to the Concern Worldwide US and World Food Programme, the Democratic Republic of Congo has the largest food crisis in the world when it comes to the number of affected people. The reasons for the crisis are the large population and widespread food insecurity which continues to grow with 27 million people being acutely food insecure.
Source: Concern Worldwide US and World Food Programme
5. More than half of the population of the Central African Republic is food insecure.
The Central African Republic has big problems with food insecurity, hunger, and starvation. 57% of the country’s population doesn’t have food security. That is 2.6 million people. 250,000 of them are at a high risk of a catastrophic situation.
Source: ReliefWeb
6. Food insecurity affected Yemen’s population with a high rate of undernourishment.
As the hungriest country of 2021, Yemen has 16.2 million food-insecure people. Food insecurity impacted the population and nearly half of it is undernourished. Children are affected too – more than half of the country’s children are stunted.
Source: Concern Worldwide US
7. Somalia has 5.6 million food-insecure people.
Somalia has big problems with flooding, drought, desert locust infestations, conflict, and COVID-19 which largely impacted the economy of the country. All these factors are the reasons for a high rate of food insecurity. Somalia has 5.6 million food-insecure people, while 2.8 million people cannot meet their daily food requirements.
Source: IFRC
8. Around 790,000 Chadians are in need of emergency food assistance.
The main problem for Chad is the lack of access to food. The country also has problems with political, ethnic, and religious instability. These factors led the country to have more than 3 million rural Chadians in need of humanitarian assistance. There are almost 800,000 people who are in need of emergency food assistance.
Source: World Food Program USA
9. There are 4 million food-insecure Haitians.
For a long period of time, Haiti had the highest levels of food insecurity in the world. Last year, the poorest country in America was ranked 104 out of the 107 countries on the GHI, Global Hunger Index. This year, Haiti is ranked 109 out of 116 countries. By September this year, 4 million Haitians, or 42% of Haiti’s population, were faced acute food insecurity.
Source: Reuters and Global Hunger Index
10. Liberia is fighting high levels of poverty and food insecurity.
According to the Global Hunger Index, Liberia has a high level of serious hungriness and it’s on the brink of becoming alarming. 32% of the country’s population is having moderate or severe chronic food insecurity. This problem affects more than 1.55 million people. The serious situation is mostly driven by high levels of poverty.
Source: The Borgen Project and Global Hunger Index
11. Around 36% of the population of Timor-Leste is chronically food insecure.
Poor quality and quantity of food consumption, low agricultural productivity, and many other factors have driven Timor-Leste to chronic food insecurity. 36% of the population (430,000 people) is chronically food insecure, while 15% of the population (176,000 people) are suffering a severe level of food insecurity. The hunger of the population of Timor-Leste is defined by a long-term inability to meet the daily food consumption requirements.
Source: Integrated Food Security Phase Classification
12. In Venezuela, 7.9 % of the population is severely food insecure.
The Venezuelan economy was greatly impacted by high rates of food insecurity. 7.9% of the country’s population or 2.3 million people is severely food insecure, while 24.4% of the population or 7 million people are moderately food insecure.
Source: ReliefWeb
13. Sudan has 7.3 million people who are at high levels of acute food insecurity.
Sudan was impacted by the negative effects of flooding and violence on livelihood activities, as well as many poor economic conditions. All that led to the high levels of acute food insecurity. 7.3 million people fight food insecurity. 1.8 million of them are critically food insecure.
Source: ReliefWeb and USAID
14. One-quarter of the world’s undernourished people live in India.
Around 48% of people in India are fighting hunger. Out of the total number of people in the country, 31% of the population faces food insecurity. That percentage presents an increase from 2016 when India had 27.8% of food-insecure people.
Source: World Food Programme
15. In 2020, 1 in 8 Americans were food insecure.
The United States isn’t immune to food insecurity either. 1 in 8 Americans, or 38 million people, were food insecure in 2020. That high number includes almost 12 million children. The food-insecure rate increased over the last couple of years and it surely will increase even more.
Source: United States Department of Agriculture
16. Europe and Central Asia significantly reduced the prevalence of undernourishment.
Despite the fact that Europe and Central Asia have made great progress in reducing hunger problems, there are still about 100 million people who experience severe food insecurity. There is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic affected this number even more and brought an increase in the number of people facing food insecurity.
Source: EIT Food
To Wrap It Up
Food insecurity is an ongoing problem that leads to a higher rate of hunger, starvation, and death. In order to minimalize these rates, countries need to have a strong political will and financial commitments in order to meet their goals. There are some scenarios to end all forms of malnutrition by 2030, so we’ll just have to see how committed are countries and the world to find the best solution for the common problems.
