In the 2020 Global Hunger Index, Iran ranks 39th out of the 107 countries surveyed.
With a score of 7.9, Iran has a low level of hunger. Its rank was 31st out of 117 countries last year with the same score of 7.9.
The Global Hunger Index is a tool for comprehensively measuring and tracking hunger at global, regional and national levels. GHI is designed to raise awareness and understanding of the struggle against hunger, provide a means to compare the levels of hunger between countries and regions, and call attention to the areas of the world in greatest need of additional resources to eliminate hunger.
The Global Hunger Index is a peer-reviewed annual report, jointly published by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe, designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at the global, regional and national levels.
According to its website, the GHI scores are calculated each year to assess progress and setbacks in combating hunger. It is calculated on the basis of four indicators: undernourishment (share of the population with insufficient caloric intake), child wasting, the share of children under the age of five who are wasted (that is, who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition); child stunting, children under the age of five who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition; and child mortality (the mortality rate of children under five years, partly reflecting the fatal mix of inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environments)
Based on the values of the four indicators, GHI determines hunger on a 100-point scale where 0 is the best possible score (no hunger) and 100 is the worst. Each country’s GHI score is classified by severity, from low to extremely alarming.
The GHI report presented a global overview as follows:
“Far too many individuals are suffering from hunger and undernutrition: nearly 690 million people are undernourished; 144 million children suffer from stunting, a sign of chronic undernutrition; 47 million children suffer from wasting, a sign of acute undernutrition; and in 2018, 5.3 million children died before their fifth birthdays, in many cases as a result of undernutrition.
“Worldwide hunger is at a moderate level, according to the 2020 Global Hunger Index. Underlying this average are major challenges in particular regions, countries and communities.
“Africa, south of the Sahara, and South Asia have the highest hunger and undernutrition levels among world regions, with 2020 GHI scores of 27.8 and 26, respectively, both considered serious.
“According to 2020 GHI scores, three countries have alarming levels of hunger: Chad, Timor-Leste and Madagascar. Hunger is also considered to be alarming in eight countries: Burundi, Central African Republic, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen, based on provisional categorizations.
“The world is not on track to achieve the second Sustainable Development Goal—known as Zero Hunger for short—by 2030. At the current pace, approximately 37 countries will fail even to reach low hunger, as defined by the GHI Severity Scale, by 2030.
“Additional countries for which data were insufficient to calculate 2030 projections may also fall short of this goal. Furthermore, these projections do not account for the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, which may worsen hunger and undernutrition in the near term and affect countries’ trajectories into the future.
“Within their borders, countries show wide disparities in a range of different indicators of hunger and along several lines such as wealth, location, ethnicity and sex.”
