WASHINGTON — Eleven countries have alarming levels of hunger while a further 40 have serious levels, according to the 2020 Global Hunger Index.
The index, an annual look at levels of hunger around the world, ranks countries on a 100 point scale with a score of zero meaning there is no hunger. The index’s severity scale categorizes countries into five groups across the scale: low, moderate, serious, alarming, and extremely alarming levels of hunger.
While average global hunger levels are moderate — scoring between 10 and 19.9 — almost 690 million people in the world are undernourished. This includes 144 million stunted children and 47 million wasted children. In 2018, 5.3 million children died before they turned 5 years old.