World data of Food Insecurity

World data of Food Insecurity

'Extreme' food insecurity (2010)

Sub-Saharan Africa is particularly vulnerable to food insecurity because of the frequency of extreme weather events, high rates of poverty and failing infrastructures, including road and telecommunications networks, which decrease both production and distribution capacity. Conflict is also a major driver of food insecurity and the ongoing violence in Afghanistan and DR Congo is largely responsible for the precarious food security situation in both countries.

Number of people affected by undernourishment, 2010–12

The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2012 presents new estimates of the number and proportion of undernourished people going back to 1990, de ned in terms of the distribution of dietary energy supply. With almost 870 million people chronically undernourished in 2010–12, the number of hungry people in the world remains unacceptably high. The vast majority live in developing countries, where about 850 million people, or slightly fewer than 15 percent of the population, are estimated to be undernourished.

Food Insecurity by Household

The prevalence of food insecurity varied considerably among household types. Rates of food insecurity were higher than the national average (14.3 percent) for the following groups:

1.All households with children (19.5 percent),

2.Households with children under age 6 (20.9 percent),

3.Households with children headed by a single woman (34.4 percent),

4.Households with children headed by a single man (23.1 percent),

5.Black, non-Hispanic households (26.1 percent),

6.Hispanic households (23.7 percent), and

7.Low-income households with incomes below 185 percent of the poverty threshold (34.8 percent; the Federal poverty line was $23,624 for a family of four in 2013).