food insecurity

A person is food insecure when they lack regular access to enough safe and nutritious food for normal growth and development and an active and healthy life. That is a wider idea than hunger, because food security is not only about dietary energy. It exists, in the definition the UN agencies use, when all people at all times have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences.

It is measured from the bottom up. The Food Insecurity Experience Scale is a survey metric of severity that asks people directly about conditions and behaviours such as skipping meals or running out of food. Answers are graded into moderate and severe food insecurity, and the two are usually reported together: about 2.1 billion people, 25.8 percent of the world's population, were moderately or severely food insecure in 2025. Because it records what people report rather than estimating from national food supply, it also captures those who are eating but compromising on the quality or the quantity of their food.