About the 2013 Data

The GHI is only as current as the data for its three component indicators. This year’s GHI reflects the most recent available country-level data for the three component indicators spanning the period 2008 to 2012. It is thus a snapshot not of the present, but of the recent past. For some countries, such as Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, and Somalia, lack of data on undernourishment prevents the calculation of GHI scores.

The GHI scores are based on source data that are continually revised by the United Nations agencies responsible for their compilation, and each year’s GHI report reflects these revisions. While these revisions result in improvements in the data, they also mean that the GHI scores from different years’ reports are not comparable with one another. This year’s report contains GHI scores for four other reference periods—1990, 1995, 2000, and 2005—besides the most recent GHI, and so expands the scope of the trend analyses in comparison with previous reports.

The 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, and 2013 GHI scores presented in the 2013 report reflect the latest revised data for the three component indicators of the GHI. Where original source data were not available, estimates for the GHI component indicators were used that are based on the most recent data available. (See Appendix A for more detailed background information on the data sources for and calculations of the 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, and 2013 GHI scores.)