The country with the highest rate of malnutrition in the world is Somalia.
India has 5,772,472 children below five years affected by severe wasting — the most in the world, alerted UNICEF.
The burden of malnutrition is unacceptably high.
More than half of the world's children impacted by wasting (26.9 million) live in South Asia. Of the three countries that are home to almost half (47.2%) of all stunted children, two are in Asia: India (46.6 million) and Pakistan (10.7 million).
The highest number of malnourished people, 520 million, lives in Asia and the Pacific, in countries like Indonesia and the Philippines. In sub-Saharan Africa, 243 million people face hunger in arid countries like Ethiopia, Niger and Mali.
According to the Global Hunger Index 2022, which was adopted by the International Food Policy Research Institute, Yemen was the most affected by hunger and malnutrition, with an index of 45.1. The Central African Republic followed with an index of 44.
The world's hungriest countries: What we're missing
In 2022, several countries rank around Yemen in terms of hunger levels. They include Burundi, Somalia, South Sudan, and Syria.
Madagascar had the WORST SCORE in terms of food quality. An average of 79% of people's consumption is derived from nutrient-poor cereals, roots and tubers, compared to a global average of 47%. It also tied with India in the THIRD WORST POSITION for undernourishment levels.
Every country in the world is affected by one or more forms of malnutrition. Combating malnutrition in all its forms is one of the greatest global health challenges. Women, infants, children and adolescents are at the highest risk of malnutrition.
1) Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
The DRC is the world's largest hunger crisis, fueled by over 25 years of conflict and endemic poverty. 26 million people (about the population of Texas) are severely hungry today and over 5 million people have been displaced from their homes.
Underlying Causes of Malnutrition: Lack of access to food
Most major food and nutrition crises do not occur because of a lack of food, but rather because people are too poor to obtain enough food.
Women and children are particularly vulnerable.
Women. Women are disproportionately affected by hunger; in nearly two-thirds of the world's countries, women are more likely than men to suffer from hunger and food insecurity.
“In Australia we are lucky because most of our food is grown and produced here. We produce enough food to feed 75 million people. That is enough to feed the entire population three times over. We have a very safe, reliable, and efficient food supply chain.
While the 2023 edition of the UNICEF-WHO-World Bank Group Joint Malnutrition Estimates shows that stunting prevalence has been declining since the year 2000, more than one in five – 148.1 million children under 5 –were stunted in 2022, and at least 45.0 million suffered from wasting at any given point of time in the ...
Based on self-reported data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2017–18 National Health Survey (NHS), 1 in 2 people aged 18 and over (49%) did not eat the recommended 2 serves of fruit, while over 9 in 10 (92%) did not eat the recommended 5–6 serves of vegetables (ABS 2018).
Anyone can become malnourished, but it's more common in people who: have a long-term health conditions that affect appetite, weight and/or how well nutrients are absorbed by the gut, such as Crohn's disease. have problems swallowing (dysphagia) are socially isolated, have limited mobility, or a low income.
There are a number of reasons Australia appears on our list of top 10 healthiest countries, from their high-quality of life, to the clean environment and easy access to healthy food. And that's before we get to their high standards of healthcare.
Lesotho. Deemed the unhealthiest country in the world, the CDC reports that the leading causes of death in Lesotho include HIV/AIDS, cardiovascular diseases, and diarrheal diseases. Visit INSIDER's homepage for more.
According to this measure, 226.7 million people are starving in Africa. The countries most affected by extreme poverty and hunger in Africa are mainly those located south of the Sahara. One in four people suffers from hunger there – which means that the share of the world's hungry is highest in sub-Saharan Africa.
Guatemala, Peru, Malawi, Brazil, Madagascar, Nepal and Tanzania were rated highly committed, but Burundi and Liberia have made progress on action to reduce chronic hunger and undernutrition.
Australia is one of the most food secure countries in the world, for several reasons. Australia produces much more food than it consumes, exporting around 70% of agricultural production. We do not produce everything we like to eat however, and imports account for around 11% of food consumption by value.
The overwhelming majority of food sold in Australia is grown and supplied by Australian farmers. We are able to export more than half of our agricultural produce, while more than 90 per cent of fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, milk and eggs sold in supermarkets are domestically produced.