Malnutrition problem of world

Epidemiology

Disability-adjusted life year for nutritional deficiencies per 100,000 inhabitants in 2002. Nutritional deficiencies included: protein-energy malnutrition, iodine deficiency, vitamin A deficiency, and iron deficiency anaemia.^[60]

     no data      less than 150      150-300      300-450      450-600      600-750      750-900      900-1050      1050-1200      1200-1350      1350-1500      1500-1750      more than 1750

There were 925 million malnourished people in the world in 2010, an increase of 80 million since 1990, despite the fact that the world already produces enough food to feed everyone - 6 billion people - and could feed the double - 12 billion people.

Year	1990	1995	2005	2007	2010
Malnourished people in the world (millions)	842	832	848	923	925

Year	1970	1980	1990	2005	2007	2010
Share of malnourished people in the developing world	37 %	28 %	20 %	16 %	17 %	16 %

• On the average, a person dies every second as a direct or indirect result of malnutrition - 4000 every hour - 100 000 each day - 36 million each year - 58 % of all deaths (2001-2004 estimates).
• On the average, a child dies every 5 seconds as a direct or indirect result of malnutrition - 700 every hour - 16 000 each day - 6 million each year - 60% of all child deaths (2002-2008 estimates).

Percentage of population affected by undernutrition by country, according to United Nations statistics.

Number of undernourished people (million) in 2001-2003, according to the FAO, the following countries had 5 million or more undernourished people:

Country	Number of Undernourished (million)
India	217.05
China	154.0
Bangladesh	43.45
Democratic Republic of Congo	37.0
Pakistan	35.2
Ethiopia	31.5
Tanzania	16.1
Philippines	15.2
Brazil	14.4
Indonesia	13.8
Vietnam	13.8
Thailand	13.4
Nigeria	11.5
Kenya	9.7
Sudan	8.8
Mozambique	8.3
North Korea	7.9
Yemen	7.1
Madagascar	7.1
Colombia	5.9
Zimbabwe	5.7
Mexico	5.1
Zambia	5.1
Angola	5.0

Note: This table measures "undernourishment", as defined by FAO, and represents the number of people consuming (on average for years 2001 to 2003) less than the minimum amount of food energy (measured in kilocalories per capita per day) necessary for the average person to stay in good health while performing light physical activity. It is a conservative indicator that does not take into account the extra needs of people performing extraneous physical activity, nor seasonal variations in food consumption or other sources of variability such as inter-individual differences in energy requirements.

Malnutrition and undernourishment are cumulative or average situations, and not the work of a single day's food intake (or lack thereof). This table does not represent the number of people who "went to bed hungry today."

Various scales of analysis also have to be considered in order to determine the sociopolitical causes of malnutrition. For example, the population of a community may be at risk if it lacks health-related services, but on a smaller scale certain households or individuals may be at even higher risk due to differences in income levels, access to land, or levels of education . Also within the household, there may be differences in levels of malnutrition between men and women, and these differences have been shown to vary significantly from one region to another with problem areas showing relative deprivation of women  . Children and the elderly tend to be especially susceptible. Approximately 27 percent of children under 5 in developing world are malnourished, and in these developing countries, malnutrition claims about half of the 10 million deaths each year of children under 5.

 Middle East

Malnutrition rates in Iraq had risen from 19% before the US-led invasion to a national average of 28% four years later.

 South Asia

According to the Global Hunger Index, South Asia has the highest child malnutrition rate of world's regions.  India  contributes to about 5.6 million child deaths every year, more than half the world's total. The 2006 report mentioned that "the low status of women in South Asian countries and their lack of nutritional knowledge are important determinants of high prevalence of underweight children in the region" and was concerned that South Asia has "inadequate feeding and caring practices for young children".

Half of children in India are underweight, one of the highest rates in the world and nearly double the rate of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Research on overcoming persistent under-nutrition published by the Institute of Development Studies, argues that the co-existence of India as an 'economic powerhouse' and home to one-third of the world's under-nourished children reflects a failure of the governance of nutrition: "A poor capacity to deliver the right services at the right time to the right populations, an inability to respond to citizens' needs and weak accountability are all features of weak nutrition governance." The research suggests that to make under-nutrition history in India the governance of nutrition needs to be strengthened and new research needs to focus on the politics and governance of nutrition. At the current rate of progress the MDG1 target for nutrition will only be reached in 2042 with severe consequences for human wellbeing and economic growth.

United States

Childhood malnutrition is generally thought of as being limited to developing countries, but although most malnutrition occurs there, it is also an ongoing presence in developed nations. For example, in the United States of America, one out of every six children is at risk of hunger. A study, based on 2005-2007 data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Agriculture Department, shows that an estimated 3.5 million children under the age of five are at risk of hunger in the United States. In developed countries, this persistent hunger problem is not due to lack of food or food programs, but is largely due to an underutilization of existing programs designed to address the issue, such as food stamps or school meals. Many citizens of rich countries such as the United States of America attach stigmas to food programs or otherwise discourage their use. In the USA, only 60% of those eligible for the food stamp program actually receive benefits. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that in 2003, only 1 out of 200 U.S. households with children became so severely food insecure that any of the children went hungry even once during the year. A substantially larger proportion of these same households (3.8 percent) had adult members who were hungry at least one day during the year because of their households' inability to afford enough food.