Food security is defined as the state of having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food. While many countries in the world have a high rate of food insecurity, there are some of them where food security is indeed present. Countries like Australia, Ireland, and Switzerland do not need to worry about putting food on the table.
But what are the rates of security there? And what does food security depends on?
In today’s article, we’re talking about the positive sides of food security and where in the world people do not need to worry about affordability and accessibility of food.
3 Key Food Security Statistics & Facts (Editor’s Pick)
- Ireland is the most food-secure country.
- Switzerland has 2.5% of hunger rate since 2001.
- In Australia, 87% of the general population is food secure.
9 Food Security Statistics
1. Food security is built on 4 pillars.
Food security doesn’t mean a full-stacked refrigerator. It is made by 4 crucial factors – food availability, food access, food use, and food stability. If only one of these factors is missing, non-existent, or unstable, people can be faced with a state of food insecurity.
Source: Fairtrade Foundation
2. Ireland is the most food-secure country.
Ireland has been named the most food-secure country in the world in 2021. The main reason for that is food’s affordability. However, according to the report by OECD, 9% of the population of Ireland feel they can’t afford food. In second place of the most food-secure countries is Austria, the United Kingdom follows, Finland comes fourth, and Switzerland comes fifth.
Source: Global Food Security Index
3. Only 3% of the population in Austria is hungry.
Austria is the second food-secure country in 2021, according to the Global Food Security Index. The country has around 8.7 million people and only 3% of them are going hungry. The country has a 7.7% “in-work at-risk of poverty” rate compared with the European average of about 9.4%.
Source: The Borger Project
4. Around 92% of households in the UK considered themselves food secure in the period of 2019 to 2020.
The households in the United Kingdom feel like they can consistently afford and access sufficient healthy and nutritious food. A high percentage of 92% of the households in the UK stated that from 2019 to 2020 they have been food secured.
Source: Department for Environment Food
5. Finland has a score of 80.9 on the Global Food Security Index.
In 2020, Finland was at the top of the food security list, ahead of Ireland and Netherlands. This year, Finland has taken fourth place on the list. The country’s index scores for the affordability, availability, natural resources, safety, and quality of food in 2021 is 80.9 out of 100. The only challenge of the country when it comes to food security is the volatility of agricultural production.
Source: Global Food Security Index
6. Switzerland has 2.5% of hunger rate since 2001.
Switzerland is a country with a high standard of living and a low poverty rate. Even though poverty does exist in this country, food security is not much of a concern. The government takes hunger very seriously and works as hard as possible to decrease the hunger rate. In the period between 2001 and 2020, the huger rate in Switerzland hasn’t increased. It was 2.5% for all those years.
Source: Macrotrends 394
7. In 2020, almost 90% of the US households were food secure.
According to the data from the study made by USDA Economic Research Service, in 2020, 89.5% of the US households didn’t have to worry about food because they were food secure. On the other hand, the remaining 10.5% of households were food insecure at some point during the year. That percentage includes 3.9% of households, or in number, 5.1 million of them, that had very low food security.
Source: USDA Economic Research Service
8. Around 15 million people in America may have experienced very low food security in 2021.
Feeding America, a network of 200 food banks that helps those in need in order to decrease the hunger and poverty rates in America, stated that in 2021, around 15 million people, or 4.6% of the population in the US, may have experienced very low food security at some point in 2021. That year certainly had a massive impact on the economy which is linked to poverty and hunger.
9. Australia produces more food than it consumes.
Australia does not have problems with food security. The country has the lowest rate of undernourishment, it is 7th in the world regarding food affordability and 10th regarding food availability. According to the data provided by the Australian Government, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, Australia produces more food than it consumes so 87% of the general population is food secure. On the other hand, 68% of the indigenous population is food secure, depending on the location.
Source: Australian Government and Australian Institute of Family Studies
To Wrap It Up
While some countries worry about food every single day, others don’t have such problems. It is a positive sign to see what high level of food security can some countries provide and due to that, we can only hope that with a stable policy and economy, the world will also experience a decrease in food insecurity and hunger rate.
