Prevalence of severe food insecurity in the total population (percent) (annual value) — Confidence interval: Lower bound 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 severe food insecurity in the total population (percent) (annual value) — Confidence interval: Lower bound is currently reported for 2 countries. The highest value is 4.4 % in Australia and New Zealand; the lowest is 23.4 % in Melanesia.
The median across all reporting countries is 13.9 %, and the mean is 13.9 %.
Prevalence of severe food insecurity in the total population: full country ranking
| # | Country | Latest | Year | 10-year change | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Australia and New Zealand | 4.4 % | 2025 | up 131.6% | rising |
| 2 | Melanesia | 23.4 % | 2025 | up 3.1% | flat |
Regions and income groups
Aggregates are excluded from the country ranking above so that a region can never outrank a country.
- Middle Africa 33.7 %
- Low-income economies 27.3 %
- Low Income Food Deficit Countries (LIFDCs) 23.8 %
- Sub-Saharan Africa 22.2 %
- Least Developed Countries (LDCs) 19.8 %
- Oceania excluding Australia and New Zealand 22.1 %
- Small island developing States (SIDS) 18.5 %
- Eastern Africa 21 %
- Asia 7.5 %
- Caribbean 20.3 %
- Africa 20.2 %
- Western Africa 19 %
- Lower-middle-income economies 14.2 %
- Land Locked Developing Countries (LLDCs) 14.2 %
- Western Asia 14.2 %
- Southern Asia 13.7 %
- Central Asia and Southern Asia 13.3 %
- Western Asia and Northern Africa 12.6 %
- Northern Africa 10.2 %
- Oceania 10.1 %
- Southern Africa 9.6 %
- World 9.1 %
- Central America 6 %
- Latin America and the Caribbean 5.8 %
- South America 3.9 %
- Northern Europe 2.8 %
- Upper-middle-income economies 2.4 %
- Central Asia 2.2 %
- Western Europe 2.2 %
- Europe 1.9 %
- High-income economies 1.7 %
- Northern America and Europe 1.6 %
- South-Eastern Asia 1.5 %
- Eastern Europe 1.3 %
- Eastern Asia and South-eastern Asia 1.1 %
- Southern Europe 1 %
- Northern America 1 %
- Eastern Asia 0.8 %
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.