Prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding among infants 0-5 months of age (percent) — Value by country
The Suite of Food Security Indicators presents the core set of food security indicators. Following the recommendation of experts gathered in the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) Round Table on hunger measurement, hosted at FAO headquarters in September 2011, an initial set of indicators aiming to capture...
What the numbers show
Prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding among infants 0-5 months of age (percent) — Value is currently reported for 50 countries. The highest value is 83.3 % in Burundi; the lowest is 7.4 % in Chad.
The median across all reporting countries is 50.6 %, and the mean is 47.69 %.
The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 11.
Over the past decade 36 countries rose and 14 fell. The largest increase was in Côte d'Ivoire (up 188.1%), and the largest decrease in Cambodia (down 30.9%).
Prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding among infants 0-5 months of age: full country ranking
| # | Country | Latest | Year | 10-year change | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Burundi | 83.3 % | 2024 | up 1.2% | rising |
| 1 | Timor-Leste | 65 % | 2020 | up 28.0% | rising |
| 1 | Côte d'Ivoire | 34 % | 2021 | up 188.1% | volatile |
| 2 | Rwanda | 80.9 % | 2020 | down 3.5% | flat |
| 2 | United Republic of Tanzania | 64.3 % | 2022 | up 32.0% | rising |
| 3 | Peru | 70.1 % | 2024 | up 5.3% | flat |
| 3 | Bolivia (Plurinational State of) | 55.7 % | 2016 | down 1.9% | rising |
| 4 | Togo | 64.3 % | 2017 | up 124.8% | rising |
| 4 | Democratic Republic of the Congo | 52.3 % | 2023 | up 10.6% | rising |
| 5 | Malawi | 64.1 % | 2020 | down 9.5% | rising |
| 5 | Zambia | 64.1 % | 2024 | down 11.0% | rising |
| 5 | Lao People's Democratic Republic | 50.3 % | 2023 | up 26.7% | rising |
| 6 | Viet Nam | 45.4 % | 2020 | up 167.1% | rising |
| 7 | Sao Tome and Principe | 63.1 % | 2019 | up 25.4% | rising |
| 8 | Lesotho | 60.7 % | 2024 | down 9.3% | rising |
| 9 | Kenya | 59.7 % | 2022 | down 2.8% | volatile |
| 10 | Guinea-Bissau | 59.3 % | 2019 | up 54.8% | rising |
| 11 | Ethiopia | 58.8 % | 2019 | up 13.1% | rising |
| 12 | Nepal | 56.4 % | 2022 | down 19.0% | falling |
| 13 | Mozambique | 55.5 % | 2022 | up 38.8% | rising |
| 14 | Madagascar | 54.4 % | 2021 | up 29.8% | flat |
| 15 | Eswatini | 54 % | 2021 | up 23.3% | rising |
| 16 | Gambia | 53.6 % | 2020 | up 61.4% | rising |
| 17 | Bangladesh | 53.3 % | 2022 | down 16.8% | rising |
| 18 | Ghana | 52.6 % | 2022 | up 15.1% | falling |
| 19 | Burkina Faso | 51.3 % | 2021 | up 106.9% | rising |
| 20 | Mongolia | 51.1 % | 2023 | up 11.1% | flat |
| 21 | Sierra Leone | 50.9 % | 2021 | up 63.1% | volatile |
| 22 | Cambodia | 50.3 % | 2021 | down 30.9% | rising |
| 23 | Benin | 44.9 % | 2021 | up 38.2% | rising |
| 24 | Kyrgyzstan | 44.3 % | 2023 | down 20.9% | rising |
| 25 | Guinea | 43.7 % | 2022 | up 114.2% | rising |
| 26 | Zimbabwe | 42.4 % | 2024 | up 5.2% | rising |
| 27 | Mauritania | 40.9 % | 2020 | up 53.2% | rising |
| 28 | Tajikistan | 40.8 % | 2023 | up 25.2% | rising |
| 29 | Cuba | 40.6 % | 2019 | down 16.5% | flat |
| 30 | Mali | 40.4 % | 2024 | up 28.3% | rising |
| 31 | Egypt | 40.2 % | 2021 | down 23.9% | falling |
| 32 | Cameroon | 39.4 % | 2018 | up 86.7% | rising |
| 33 | Central African Republic | 36.2 % | 2019 | up 9.7% | rising |
| 34 | Mexico | 35 % | 2023 | up 143.1% | rising |
| 35 | Senegal | 34.4 % | 2023 | down 8.3% | rising |
| 36 | Nigeria | 28.8 % | 2024 | up 70.4% | rising |
| 37 | Thailand | 28.6 % | 2022 | up 132.5% | rising |
| 38 | Guyana | 28.5 % | 2019 | down 8.9% | rising |
| 39 | Uzbekistan | 25.2 % | 2021 | up 5.9% | rising |
| 40 | Niger | 24.5 % | 2022 | up 5.2% | volatile |
| 41 | Jordan | 23.9 % | 2023 | up 5.3% | falling |
| 42 | Dominican Republic | 15.8 % | 2019 | up 97.5% | rising |
| 43 | Chad | 7.4 % | 2022 | up 131.2% | volatile |
Regions and income groups
Aggregates are excluded from the country ranking above so that a region can never outrank a country.
- United States of America 25.8 %
About this data
The Suite of Food Security Indicators presents the core set of food security indicators. Following the recommendation of experts gathered in the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) Round Table on hunger measurement, hosted at FAO headquarters in September 2011, an initial set of indicators aiming to capture various aspects of food insecurity is presented here. The choice of the indicators has been informed by expert judgement and the availability of data with sufficient coverage to enable comparisons across regions and over time. Many of these indicators are produced and published elsewhere by FAO and other international organizations. They are reported here in a single database with the aim of building a wide food security information system. More indicators will be added to this set as more data will become available. Indicators are classified along the four dimensions of food security -- availability, access, utilization and stability.