World Hunger Facts and Starvation Statistics

Proper nutrition for every child in our child development programs is a priority of ours. Our child development centers provide children with nutritious meals and snacks on program activity days, and we train children about the importance of a balanced diet.

Staff members at our local church-based centers are also trained to detect malnutrition among the children they serve and take immediate action on their behalf. Often that means a program of emergency feeding and vitamin supplements for a severely malnourished child, as well as working with the child’s caregivers to ensure that meals at home meet nutritional needs.

• At least 12 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals contain indicators that are highly relevant for nutrition, reflecting nutrition’s central role in sustainable development. ⁵
• Malnutrition and diet are by far the biggest risk factors for the global burden of disease. ⁵
• Preventing malnutrition delivers $16 in returns on investment for every $1 spent. ⁵
• Eleven percent of the global population suffers from hunger (one in nine). One in three people is malnourished. ⁴
• Close to one-fifth of all children under five remain undernourished. ²
• One-third of the world’s food is wasted every year. If one-fourth of the food wasted across the globe could be recovered, it could feed 870 million people. ⁴
• An estimated 45 percent of deaths of children under age 5 are linked to malnutrition. ⁵

Chronically undernourished children who manage to survive their first five years, often live with devastating results. Their bodies are stunted physically, they are highly susceptible to illness, and their brains are underdeveloped. The hope of reaching their full, God-given potential is all but shattered.

• Stunting is the result of poor nutrition in early childhood. Children suffering from stunting may never grow to their full height and their brains may never develop to their full cognitive potential. Stunting affected an estimated 22.9 percent or 154.8 million children under 5 globally in 2016. ³
• In 2016, more than half of all stunted children under 5 lived in Asia and more than one third lived in Africa. ³
• Wasting in children is the life-threatening result of hunger and/or disease. Children suffering from wasting have weakened immunity, are susceptible to long term developmental delays, and face an increased risk of death. In 2016, wasting threatened the lives of an estimated 7.7 percent or nearly 52 million children under 5 globally. ³
• In 2016, more than two thirds of all wasted children under 5 lived in Asia and more than one quarter lived in Africa. ³
• China accounts for almost two-thirds of the reduction in the number of undernourished people in the developing regions between 1990–92 and 2014–16. ¹
• The number of undernourished people in Latin America has fallen from 58 million to fewer than 27 million. ¹
• In 1990, only 12 countries in Africa were facing food crises, of which only four were in protracted crises. Twenty years later, a total of 24 countries were experiencing food crises, with 19 in crisis for eight or more of the previous 10 years. ¹