About the 2014 Data

The 2014 GHI has been calculated for 120 countries for which data on the three component indicators are available and where measuring hunger is considered most relevant. The index excludes some higher-income countries because the prevalence of hunger there is very low.

The GHI is only as current as the data for its three component indicators. This year’s GHI reflects the most recent country-level data
available for the three component indicators spanning the period of 2009 to 2013. 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, Georgia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, and Somalia, lack of data on undernourishment prevents the calculation of GHI scores.

The scores are based on source data that are continually revised by the United Nations (UN) agencies that compile them, 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.

The 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, and 2014 GHI scores presented in this report reflect the latest revised data for the three component indicators of the GHI.5 Where original source data were not available, the authors’ estimates for the GHI component indicators were used, 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 2014 GHI scores.)