​ADDITIONAL FACTS FROM THE UNITED NATIONS

Hunger

• Globally, one in nine people in the world today (815 million) are undernourished

• The majority of the world’s hungry people live in developing countries, where 12.9 per cent of the population is undernourished.

• Asia is the continent with the hungriest people – two thirds of the total. The percentage in southern Asia has fallen in recent years but in western Asia it has increased slightly.

• Southern Asia faces the greatest hunger burden, with about 281 million undernourished people. In sub-Saharan Africa, projections for the 2014-2016 period indicate a rate of undernourishment of almost 23 per cent.

• Poor nutrition causes nearly half (45 per cent) of deaths in children under five – 3.1 million children each year.

• One in four of the world’s children suffer stunted growth. In developing countries, the proportion can rise to one in three.

• 66 million primary school-age children attend classes hungry across the developing world, with 23 million in Africa alone.