• The Global Hunger Index (GHI) has ranked India 105th out of 127 countries.

• India is among 36 countries that fall within the “serious” category, alongside Pakistan and Afghanistan. Other South Asian neighbours such as Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka show better GHI scores and are listed under the “moderate” category.

• Belarus has the lowest hunger level in the world, followed by Bosnia & Herzegovina, Chile and China.

What is Global Hunger Index?

• The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at global, regional, and national levels, reflecting multiple dimensions of hunger over time. 

• It is a peer-reviewed annual report, jointly published by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe.

• The GHI is intended to raise awareness and understanding of the struggle against hunger, provide a way to compare levels of hunger between countries and regions, and call attention to those areas of the world where hunger levels are highest and where the need for additional efforts to eliminate hunger is greatest.

How are the scores calculated?

Each country’s GHI score is calculated based on a formula that combines four indicators that together capture the multidimensional nature of hunger:

i) Undernourishment: The share of the population with insufficient caloric intake.

ii) Child Stunting: The share of children under age five who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition.

iii) Child Wasting: The share of children under age five who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition.

iv) Child Mortality: The share of children who die before their fifth birthday, partly reflecting the fatal mix of inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environments.

GHI scores are calculated using a three-step process:

Step 1: Values are determined for the four component indicators for each country, drawing on the latest published data available from internationally recognised sources.

Step 2: Each of the four component indicators is given a standardised score based on thresholds set slightly above the highest country-level values observed worldwide for that indicator since 1988.

Step 3: The standardised scores are aggregated to calculate the GHI score for each country. Undernourishment and child mortality each contribute one-third of the GHI score, while child stunting and child wasting each contribute one-sixth of the score.

• This calculation results in GHI scores on a 100-point scale, where 0 is the best score (no hunger) and 100 is the worst. 

• In practice, neither of these extremes is reached. A value of 100 would signify that a country’s undernourishment, child wasting, child stunting, and child mortality levels each exactly meets the thresholds set slightly above the highest levels observed worldwide in recent decades. 

• A value of 0 would mean that a country had no undernourished people in the population, no children younger than five who were wasted or stunted, and no children who died before their fifth birthday. 

Other key points of the Index:

• The 2024 Global Hunger Index (GHI) score for the world is 18.3, considered moderate, down only slightly from the 2016 score of 18.8. This global score obscures wide variations in hunger by region. 

• The situation is most severe in South of the Sahara and South Asia, where hunger remains serious. South of the Sahara’s high GHI score is driven by the highest undernourishment and child mortality rates of any region by far. 

• In South Asia, serious hunger reflects rising undernourishment and persistently high child undernutrition, driven by poor diet quality, economic challenges, and the increasing impact of natural disasters. 

• The goal of Zero Hunger by 2030 now appears unreachable, and if progress remains at the pace observed since the 2016 global GHI score, the world will not reach even low hunger until 2160 — more than 130 years from now.

• Hunger is considered alarming in six countries: Burundi, Chad, Madagascar, Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen. In another 36 countries, hunger is designated as serious.

Some important definitions

What is hunger?

The problem of hunger is complex, and different terms are used to describe its various forms.

Hunger is usually understood to refer to the distress associated with a lack of sufficient calories. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) defines food deprivation, or undernourishment, as the consumption of too few calories to provide the minimum amount of dietary energy that each individual requires to live a healthy and productive life, given that person’s sex, age, stature, and physical activity level.

What is undernutrition?

Undernutrition goes beyond calories and signifies deficiencies in any or all of the following: energy, protein, and/ or essential vitamins and minerals. Undernutrition is the result of inadequate intake of food in terms of either quantity or quality, poor utilisation of nutrients due to infections or other illnesses, or a combination of these factors. These, in turn, are caused by a range of factors, including household food insecurity; inadequate maternal health or childcare practices; or inadequate access to health services, safe water, and sanitation.

What is malnutrition?

Malnutrition refers more broadly to both undernutrition (problems caused by deficiencies) and overnutrition (problems caused by unbalanced diets, such as consuming too many calories in relation to requirements with or without low intake of micronutrient-rich foods).

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