The cost of a healthy diet is up significantly since 2021 but the number of people unable to afford it declined to 2.69 billion, a drop of 280 million, the United Nations said in its global hunger report for 2025 published on Tuesday. Photo by Allison Dinner/EPA
July 21 (UPI) -- The daily cost of a healthy diet in 2025 jumped by almost a quarter to 4.28 equivalent dollars, up from 3.44 in 2021 and 2.94 dollars in 2017, according to an annual report on global hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition out Tuesday.
Latin America and the Caribbean faced the highest costs globally at 4.91 purchasing power parity dollars, but the number of people unable to afford a healthy diet fell to 2.69 billion, a little less than a third of the global population, compared with 2.97 billion, or 37.4% of the population, in 2021, the United Nations said in its The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report.
The report calculates the average minimum outlay to purchase locally available food meeting the energy and nutrition required for a healthy diet, which the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization define as one that is "adequate, balanced, diverse and moderate."
