Measuring hunger, food security and food consumption
Measuring and monitoring access to food and dietary energy and understanding food consumption patterns across population groups is fundamental to inform evidence-based policies and interventions. On this page, FAO presents three different methodologies designed to produce food security and consumption statistics with the goal of reducing food insecurity and ending hunger: the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) which measures access to food; the method for estimating the Prevalence of Undernourishment (PoU), which is a measure of access to dietary energy; and methods to measure apparent food and nutrient consumption in countries.
Access to food
The Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) is an experience-based metric of food insecurity severity
Access to dietary energy
The Prevalence of Undernourishment (PoU) is FAO's traditional indicator used to monitor hunger at the global and regional levels
Food consumption
Statistics from household consumption and expenditure surveys provide information about apparent food and nutrient consumption in a country
Capacity building
Working with partners and donors such as the European Union, FAO provides capacity building and technical support to countries
The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) is the most authoritative global report tracking progress towards ending hunger and malnutrition. It is produced jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The report provides the most up-to-date food security and nutrition indicators, with a focus on those that relate to SDG 2 , "End hunger and achieve food security and improved nutrition". This includes yearly estimates of the the Prevalence of Undernourishment (SDG Indicator 2.1.1) and the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity based on the FIES (SDG Indicator 2.1.2) at global, regional, sub-regional and country levels.
Start readingThe Voices of the Hungry project
The Voices of the Hungry Project was an initiative implemented by FAO and financially supported by the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DfID) and the Kingdom of Belgium through the FAO Multipartner Programme Support Mechanism (FMM). The project launched the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) in 2014. Inspired by two decades of accumulated experience with similar tools in several countries, Voices of the Hungry developed the analytical protocols necessary to take experience-based food security measurement global, making it possible to compare prevalence rates across countries.
Maps
Contact
Food security and nutrition statistics team
FAO Statistics Division
Team Leader: Carlo Cafiero
Email: [email protected]