The Food Prices for Nutrition DataHub provides access to global statistics on the cost and affordability of healthy diets and related indicators. These data use food item availability and prices from the International Comparison Program (ICP), combined with food composition data and nutritional requirements from a wide range of sources including national dietary guidelines.
The 33 indicators and their metadata cover:
Diet cost
- Cost of a healthy diet, per person per day
- Cost of an energy sufficient diet and a nutrient adequate diet, per person per day
- Cost per person per day, cost share, and cost relative to starchy staples of different food groups (fruits; vegetables; starchy staples; animal-sourced foods; legumes, nuts and seeds; and oils and fats)
Diet affordability
- Share of the population and number of people who cannot afford each diet cost
- Ratio of each diet cost to observed national average food expenditures
- Ratio of each diet cost to the food component of the international poverty line
For further information on definitions and methods please refer to Methodology.
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DATA HIGHLIGHTS
- In 2021 the global average daily cost of a healthy diet in current purchasing power parities was $3.66. In low-income countries the average cost was $3.37, while in high-income countries it was slightly higher at $3.43. The highest cost was observed in upper-middle-income countries, where a healthy diet cost $3.91, while in lower-middle-income countries the average was slightly less at $3.88.
- These diet costs are much higher than the current international poverty line of $2.15 per day and significantly higher than the $1.12 food poverty line, which is set at 52% of the international poverty line based on the average share of income that households in low-income countries spend on food.
- Comparing these costs with income distribution data provides a measure of the affordability of the diet. Around 42% - or 3.14 billion - of the global population could not afford a healthy diet in 2021. In low-income and lower-middle-income countries the proportions were 86% and 70% respectively, and in the eleven most afflicted countries - all but one in Sub-Saharan Africa - over 90% of the population could not afford a healthy diet.
- These headline data are available for the years 2017 to 2021. The share of the population unable to afford a healthy diet fell across all income groups and most regions between 2017 and 2019 but rose again in 2020 before decreasing again in 2021. This may be attributed to the sharp increase in global consumer food prices, relative to income change, in the second half of 2020 impacting the affordability of the diet. The exceptions were the Middle East and North Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean where the shares rose over 2020 to 2021 from 33.7% to 34.0% and 20.9% to 22.7% respectively.
- The cost of each food group making up the cost of a healthy diet is also provided. The most expensive of the food groups is animal-sourced foods, priced on average at $0.87 for the daily quantity needed in a healthy diet. For this food group, the highest cost recorded is in South Asia at $1.08. Vegetables are the second most expensive at $0.79 while fruits cost $0.66 on average.
- The cost of each food group relative to the cost of starchy staples – often an easily accessible food providing calories – is also provided. The cost of vegetables relative to starchy staples was highest in the Maldives at over four times the cost, while fruits were 3.7 times the cost of starchy staples in Italy for example.
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The Food Prices for Nutrition project was established to provide governments and development agencies with accurate and updated metrics to inform agricultural and food systems interventions.
The project’s outputs – indicators of the cost and affordability of diets and food groups and data for up to 174 countries - use observed consumer prices and household expenditures to provide an operational measure of people’s access to locally available foods in the proportions needed for health.
The new diet cost metrics developed for Food Prices for Nutrition underlie the estimates published in The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World that over 3 billion – or two in five people on the planet - cannot afford a healthy diet. These data were used to frame the 2021 UN Food System Summit summary and statement of action. Ongoing global food price inflation and supply shocks further underscore the need for timely data on the cost and affordability of healthy diets and nutritious food items and groups. The Food Prices for Nutrition Datahub, as the authoritative source for internationally standardized statistics, indicators, and granular data, meets this need for a global cohort of policy makers, development analysts, and other users.
Food Prices for Nutrition supports efforts within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture by 2030 (SDG 2). It can also support the monitoring of progress towards the World Bank’s objective of building food systems that can feed everyone, everywhere, every day by promoting “nutrition-sensitive agriculture” and improving food safety. FPN data assist policy makers and program analysts in guiding agricultural production and food distribution to ensure affordable healthy diets for all people at all times.
The Food Prices for Nutrition project is a partnership between Tufts University, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the World Bank. This project is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and UK Aid, through the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office of the United Kingdom.
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The Food Prices for Nutrition DataHub's diet cost and affordability indicators use the least cost combination of locally available foods to meet the needs of a representative adult requiring 2330 kcal per day at three levels of diet quality: a healthy diet; a nutrient adequate diet, and an energy sufficient diet. The initial results up to 174 countries are based on national average prices in 2017, expressed in terms of purchasing power parity dollars per day.
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COST INDICATORS
- Cost of a Healthy Diet: A healthy diet meets nutritional standards set by dietary guidelines, with sufficient diversity and quantity within and between food groups to achieve nutrient adequacy and protect against diet-related diseases. To measure access and affordability, the cost of meeting food-based dietary guidelines is computed using the least expensive foods available in each category at each place and time (see "Methods and options to monitor the cost and affordability of a healthy diet globally" and "Brief note: Methods and data sources" (Herforth et al. 2022) ). The cost of a healthy diet is the preferred indicator of diet costs as it uses the most affordable foods available at local markets to meet dietary needs for an active and healthy life, using standards adopted by national governments around the world. Total cost per day can be disaggregated by food group, showing the cost per day of the least expensive locally available items in each food group (fruits; vegetables; starchy staples; animal-source foods; legumes, nuts, and seeds; and oils and fats)
- Cost of a Nutrient Adequate Diet: A nutrient adequate diet meets all essential nutrient requirements, with sufficient diversity and quantity of locally available foods to stay within the upper and lower bounds for total protein, fats, and carbohydrates as well as essential vitamins and minerals required to avoid nutrient deficiencies or toxicity. Computation of the least-cost nutrient adequate diet requires linear programming, and is based on nutrient requirements only, rather than food groups specified in dietary guidelines.
- Cost of an Energy Sufficient Diet: An energy sufficient diet provides enough of a starchy staple food for day-to-day subsistence, without either nutrient adequacy or adherence to dietary guidelines. The least-cost version of this subsistence diet uses the most affordable locally available starchy staple, achieving energy balance but not nutrient adequacy or other dietary needs.
For each of the diets listed above, costs per day are based on requirements for a median adult woman aged 19-30 in a healthy population as defined by the World Health Organization. Information on the variation in the cost of nutrient adequacy by age, sex and reproductive status can be found in the Lancet article "Global variation in the cost of a nutrient-adequate diet by population group: an observational study" (Bai, Herforth and Masters 2022).
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AFFORDABILITY INDICATORS
The affordability of each diet is measured by comparing diet costs to available income and four affordability metrics for each level of diet quality are calculated. The first three of these define the income available for food as 52 percent of total household expenditure, computed from budget shares recorded in low-income countries and used for The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report. The fourth metric uses actual food expenditure. The metrics available are:
- The number of people who cannot afford each level of diet quality, using household income or expenditure data for each country from the World Bank’s Poverty and Inequality Platform.
- The percentage share of people who cannot afford each level of diet quality, using the number of people who cannot afford divided by the total population in each country.
- The ratio of a country’s diet cost to the food component of the international poverty line, with the food component defined as 52 percent of $2.15 per day in 2017 prices, and equal to $1.12 in 2017 prices
- The ratio of a country’s diet costs to observed food expenditures per capita per day from national accounts, as reported by the International Comparison Program.
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- May 18, 2023: 9th Intl. Conference on Agricultural Statistics session on "Access to healthy diets"
- Nada Hamadeh, chair – opening remarks (pdf)
- Anna Herforth on measuring access as the cost & affordability of healthy diets [abstract (pdf), slides (pdf)]
- Kalyani Raghunathan on the cost & affordability of healthy diets in India [abstract (pdf), slides (pdf)]
- Rachel Gilbert on role of trade and import barriers in retail diet costs [abstract (pdf), slides (pdf)]
- Yan Bai on measuring diet costs with national data instead of prices reported to the ICP [slides (pdf)]
- Discussants: Prince Adeyemi Adeniran (Nigeria), Bernice Serwah Ofosu-Baadu (Ghana)
- Apr 6, 2023: SocialProtection.org webinar "Addressing the Global Food, Energy and Cost of Living Crises: The role of social protection in strengthening food systems’ resilience" [slides (pdf), video]
- February 13th 2023 (12.00-18.30 CET) GDPRD/ RU/ IFAD/ GPSDD consultation event "Assessing the Data ‘Quantum’ Leap in Agriculture and Food Systems: Consultations for New Strategic Directions" [Presentation (pdf)]
- July 15th 2022 (10:00-11:30 am ET) IFPRI policy seminar "Are healthy diets affordable? Using new data on retail prices and diet costs to guide agricultural and food policy"
- July 14th 2022 (10:00-11:30 am ET) World Bank Live event "Are healthy diets affordable? Using new data to guide agricultural and food policy" [Presentation (pdf)]
- July 6th 2022 (10:00-12:00 ET) UN (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO) launch event "State of Food Security in the World 2022"
Videos
- Tufts-FAO webinar on true cost and affordability of healthy diets (25 min.)
- Harvard Chan School of Public Health nutrition seminar: Retail food prices and the affordability of healthy diets worldwide (50 min.)
- Friedman School of Nutrition microcourse: Beyond calories: cost & affordability of healthy and sustainable diets (23 min.)
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Papers, Blogs and Articles
- Food Prices for Nutrition 2023 Highlights (Annual progress report)
- Bai Y., J. Bouscarat, K. Sokourenko, P. Heinrigs, and K. Zougbédé (2023) Healthy diets, costs and food policies in the Sahel and West Africa, 31 July 2023. Also available in French.
- Purdie E., Y. Bai, I. Song, and R. Costa (2023) How much does a healthy diet cost in your country? And is it affordable? Introducing a new Food Prices for Nutrition online course, 24 July 2023.
- Rosero Moncayo J., N. Hamadeh, M. Rissanen, V. Conti, and Y. Bai (2023) Over 3.1 billion people could not afford a healthy diet in 2021 - an increase of 134 million since the start of COVID-19, 17 July 2023.
- Bai Y., E. Purdie, M. Nsabimana, and M. Rissanen (2023) Diet affordability indicators incorporate the latest poverty and inequality data to monitor access to a healthy diet, 15 May 2023.
- Masters, W.A., E.M. Martinez, F. Greb, A. Herforth and S.L. Hendriks (2023). Cost and affordability of preparing a basic meal around the world, in J. von Braun et al., eds, Science and Innovations for Food Systems Transformation, pages 603-623, 2 January 2023.
- Masters, W.A. and A. Herforth (2021). Three billion people cannot afford a healthy diet. The Conversation, 9 July 2021.
- Bai, Y. and W.A. Masters (2020), Retail food prices at purchasing power parity exchange rates. World Bank data blog, 26 May 2020.
- Herforth, A. (2020). Three Billion People Cannot Afford Healthy Diets. What Does This Mean for the Next Green Revolution? CSIS, Washington, 23 Sep 2020.
- Masters, W.A., Y. Bai, K. Hirvonen and D. Headey (2019), Can the world’s poor afford a healthy diet? VoxDev column, 13 Dec 2019.
- Peinhardt, K. (2019), Are nutritious diets becoming more accessible? IFPRI blog post, 6 Jun 2019.
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Media
- Jun 2022: Washington Post article on the true cost of food
- Jun 2022: The Independent (UK) + Tufts Now on world food prices
- May 2022: Johns Hopkins podcast on the global food price crisis
- Feb 2022: Yumlish podcast on food prices and cost of healthy eating
- Nov 2021: Le Monde article on food prices (in French) [ ungated pdf ]
- Mar 2021: Eat This podcast on diet costs and affordability
- Feb 2021: Tufts Now article on food prices and diet costs
- Dec 2020: Nature Outlook article on diet costs & affordability
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Events
- Feb 13, 2023: GDPRD/ EU/ IFAD/ GPSDD consultation event on Assessing the Data ‘Quantum’ Leap in Agriculture and Food Systems
- Dec 7, 2022: GAIN symposium on food affordability
- Sep 26, 2022: AAEA online symposium
- Jul 31- Aug 2, 2022: AAEA annual meeting presentations
- Jul 15, 2022: IFPRI policy seminar online
- Jul 14, 2022: World Bank Live event online
- Jul 6, 2022: SOFI 2022 launch at UN headquarters
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NEWS AND CONVERSATION
Contact us at FPN@worldbank.org, and follow #FoodPricesForNutrition on Twitter and LinkedIn