Countries by Prevalence of undernourishment (% of population)
Haiti ranks first in prevalence of undernourishment with 54.2% of its population lacking sufficient dietary energy, followed closely by Somalia at 53.2% and North Korea at 47.0%. At the other end, 62 countries including the United States, Germany, and Brazil all record values at or below 2.5%, the lowest threshold reported in this dataset. The gap between the most and least affected countries spans more than 51 percentage points.
Ranking 2023
Values shown in %.
Analysis
This metric measures the share of a country's population whose habitual food consumption is insufficient to maintain a normal active and healthy life. Per the source definition: 'Prevalence of undernourishments is the percentage of the population whose habitual food consumption is insufficient to provide the dietary energy levels that are required to maintain a normal active and healthy life. Data showing as 2.5 may signify a prevalence of undernourishment below 2.5%.' Values are expressed as a percentage of the total population, and a higher percentage indicates a worse food security situation. The dataset covers 168 countries using World Bank indicator SN.ITK.DEFC.ZS, with data centered on 2023. Of the 168 countries included, 167 (99.4%) have data from the last seven years, and 100% of datapoints are classified as official. The ranking identifies 27 extreme outliers at the three-standard-deviation threshold, reflecting the wide variation in outcomes across countries.
The ten highest-ranked countries by undernourishment prevalence are concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa, with conflict-affected and fragile states prominent throughout the top tier. Haiti (54.2%, rank 1) and Somalia (53.2%, rank 2) are the only countries where more than half the population is undernourished. North Korea (47.0%, rank 3) is the sole non-African country in the top six. Madagascar (39.5%, rank 4), Syria (39.0%, rank 5), and the Democratic Republic of Congo (38.5%, rank 6) follow. Zambia (37.2%, rank 7), Kenya (36.8%, rank 8), Liberia (35.5%, rank 9), and Chad (32.0%, rank 10) round out the top ten. The range from rank 1 to rank 10 alone spans more than 22 percentage points.
The middle of the ranking shows meaningful variation across regions. Bolivia (21.8%, rank 23) is the highest-ranked country in South America, while Nicaragua (17.3%, rank 34) and Honduras (14.8%, rank 40) represent Central America prominently. India ranks 50th at 12.0%, placing it above several lower-income African nations but below many middle-income peers. A notable anomaly is Gabon (25.3%, rank 15) and Botswana (24.0%, rank 18), both upper-middle-income countries by World Bank classification, ranking alongside nations with substantially lower national income levels. Macao SAR, China (11.2%, rank 53) is a counterintuitive placement for a territory with one of the world's highest per-capita income levels. At the lower end of the high-prevalence range, Mexico (2.7%, rank 106) sits just above the 2.5% floor, distinguishing it from a large cluster of 62 countries all recorded at exactly 2.5%.
A significant data limitation affects the bottom of this ranking. The source note explicitly states that a reported value of 2.5% may indicate actual undernourishment prevalence below 2.5%, not necessarily exactly 2.5%. This means 62 countries, spanning ranks 107 through 168, cannot be meaningfully differentiated from one another within the data. Rankings among this group are arbitrary. Additionally, the indicator relies on national food consumption surveys and dietary energy supply estimates, which vary in methodology and frequency across countries. The 27 extreme outliers flagged in viability checks suggest that for some countries, values may reflect acute crisis conditions or data quality issues that a single percentage-point figure cannot fully convey.
Methodology
Data are drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code SN.ITK.DEFC.ZS, for the reference year 2023. The metric is defined as follows: 'Prevalence of undernourishments is the percentage of the population whose habitual food consumption is insufficient to provide the dietary energy levels that are required to maintain a normal active and healthy life. Data showing as 2.5 may signify a prevalence of undernourishment below 2.5%.' The unit is percentage of total population. A higher value indicates a greater proportion of the population is undernourished. The ranking covers 168 countries, exceeding the 80-country coverage threshold. Of these, 167 countries (99.4%) have data from the last seven years, and 165 of 168 (98.2%) have data from 2023 specifically. All 168 datapoints are classified as official quality. The dataset contains 27 extreme outliers as identified at the three-standard-deviation threshold. The average year-over-year change across the dataset is 4.6%, within the 50% volatility threshold. The value range spans 2.50% to 54.20%, a spread of 2,068%. No microstates below one million population are included in this ranking.