The world hunger crisis: facts and figures

According to the WFP, one in nearly seven people do not get enough food to be healthy and lead an active life, making hunger and malnutrition the number one risk to health worldwide – greater than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. The magnitude of this crisis is brought to life in the many points of information listed below:

World hunger facts

• Hunger and poverty claim 25,000 lives every day
  Source: FAO & The State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2006
  
  
• 854 million people do not have enough to eat - more than the populations of USA, Canada and the European Union
  Source: FAO & The State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2006
  
  
• 820 million people in developing countries alone are hungry - one in four lives in sub-Saharan Africa
  Source: FAO & The State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2006
  
  
• In the 1990s, global poverty dropped by 20 percent. The number of hungry people increased by 18 million
  Source: Food as Aid: Trends, Needs and Challenges in the 21st Century
  
  
• 524 million of the world's hungry live in South Asia - more than the populations of Australia and USA
  Source: FAO & The State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2006
  
  
• More than 60 percent of chronically hungry people are women
  Source: FAO & The State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2006
  
  
• The number of chronically hungry people worldwide is growing by an average of four million per year at current trends
  Source: FAO & The State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2006

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Child hunger facts

• Every five seconds a child dies because she or he is hungry
  Source: UNICEF Fact Sheet on Child Survival (2007)
  
  
• Undernutrition in children under the age 18 affects an estimated 350 to 400 million children
  Source: Global Framework for Action, 2006
  
  
• More than 70 percent of the world’s 146 million underweight children under age five years live in just 10 countries, with more than 50 per cent located in South Asia alone
  Source: Progress for Children: A Report Card on Nutrition (No.4), UNICEF, May 2006
  
  
• 9.7 million children under five died in developing countries in 2006. Malnutrition and hunger-related diseases caused 60 percent of the deaths.
  Source: UNICEF Fact Sheet on Child Survival (2007)
  
  
• The cost of undernutrition to national economic development is estimated at US$20-30 billion per annum
  Source: Progress for Children, A report card on Nutrition, 2006
  
  
• One out of four children - roughly 146 million - in developing countries are underweight
  Source: The State of the World’s Children 2007, UNICEF
  
  
• WFP provided school meals and/or take home rations to 20.2 million children in 71 countries in 2006
  Source: WFP School Feeding Unit
  

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All facts and figures listed above came directly from the World Food Programme. Visit http://www.wfp.org to learn more, or take action now: