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Publication | 2021

Europe and Central Asia – Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2021

Global Food and Nutrition Security

Key messages

  • While the worldwide prevalence of undernourishment (PoU) increased from 8.4 percent in 2019 to 9.9 percent in 2020, the PoU in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region has remained below 2.5 percent for nearly two decades.

  • The average figure for the ECA region hides subregional realities. While the PoU in the European Union and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (EU27 and the United Kingdom), European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries and European countries from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) has remained below 2.5 percent for close to 20 years, the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Western Balkans experienced small increases from 2019 to 2020.

  • The ECA region added an estimated 7.1 million severely food insecure people from 2019 to 2020. About 2.4 percent of the ECA’s population – 22.8 million people – were facing severe food insecurity in 2020, an increase of 0.7 percentage points in just one year.

  • Overall, 11.9 percent of the total population in the ECA region were exposed to moderate or severe food insecurity in 2020, with four subregions having a higher prevalence: Central Asia, at 18.0 percent; the Western Balkans, at 17.6 percent; CIS Europe, at 16.8 percent; and the Caucasus, at 16.7 percent.

  • Sex-disaggregated estimates across the region show that moderate or severe food insecurity was experienced slightly more by women (13.4 percent) than by men (12.3 percent) in 2020.

  • The prevalence of stunting among children in the ECA region dropped to 7.3 percent in 2020, down from 8.9 percent in 2015, and that rate was much lower than the 2020 world average of 22 percent. Countries with a higher prevalence of stunting in 2020 in the region are Azerbaijan (16.3 percent), Ukraine (15.9 percent), Tajikistan (15.3 percent) and Kyrgyzstan (11.4 percent).

  • The prevalence of wasting among children was below 2 percent in 2020 in the ECA region, much lower than the world average of 6.7 percent. Among the ECA subregions, the prevalence is highest in the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Western Balkans.

  • In 2020, the regional prevalence of overweight among children was 7.1 percent, down from 8.5 percent in 2015 but higher than the world average of 5.7 percent.

  • The prevalence of anaemia among women of reproductive age was 17.4 percent in 2019, the same as in 2000. The prevalence in some Caucasus and Central Asian countries is close to or above the world average of 29.9 percent.

  • The ECA region’s prevalence of obese adults increased from 17.2 percent in 2000 to 23.3 percent in 2016. This is well above the global prevalence, which rose from 8.7 percent to 13.1 percent. All subregions had values above 20 percent, with CIS Europe (23.3 percent) and the EU27 and the United Kingdom (22.9 percent) among the most affected.

  • Between 2012 and 2019, the global prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding of children younger than 6 months increased from 37 percent to 44 percent. The progress was even greater in the ECA region, increasing from 31.1 percent to 41.7 percent, driven by the Caucasus, with an increase from 24.1 percent to 31 percent, and Central Asia, with an increase from 29.2 percent to 44.8 percent.

  • The proportion of low birthweight babies in the ECA region remains low and below the global level. The prevalence has declined, but at a slow pace. Neither the high-income countries nor the lower-income countries in the ECA region have substantially reduced the prevalence of low birthweight.