Key messages

• In 2020, 59.7 million people in LAC were undernourished, which is 13.8 million people more than in 2019, a 30% rise in the number of people living with hunger in just one year.
  • In 2020, 33.7 million people in South America were undernourished; 19 million people in Mesoamerica and 7 million in the Caribbean.
• Between 2019 and 2020, the prevalence of hunger (percentage of the population) in the region increased by 2 percentage points, reaching 9.1 percent, the highest it has been since the year 2000 and saw a steeper percentage rise than in other regions of the world.
  • In 2020 the undernourished population was 16.1 percent in the Caribbean, 10.6 percent in Mesoamerica (highest value in the last 20 years) and 7.8 percent in South America.
• During 2020, in Latin America and the Caribbean 267 million people experienced moderate or severe food insecurity, 60 million people more than in 2019, 41 percent of the population.
  • Between 2019 and 2020, the prevalence grew by 9 percentage points, the most pronounced rise in relation to other world regions.
  • In South America between 2014 and 2020, the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity increased by 20.5 percentage points,
  • In Mesoamerica there was an increase of 7.3 percentage points during the same period.
• In 2020, severe food insecurity (people who had run out of food and, at worst, had gone a day or more without eating) affected 92.8 million people in the region: 27.5 million people more than were affected in 2019, partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • The prevalence of severe food insecurity was 14 percent
  • Between 2014 and 2020, the number of people experiencing severe food insecurity almost doubled, from 47.6 million to 92.8 million.
• In the region in 2016 obesity in adults (≥18 years old) affected 24.2 percent of the adult population, well above the world average of 13.1 percent: There were significant increases between 2000 and 2016: 9.5 percentage points in the Caribbean, 8.2 percentage points and Mesoamerica, 7.2 percentage points in South America.
• In Latin America and the Caribbean, 7.5 percent of children under five years had overweight in 2020: this prevalence is almost 2 percentage points above the world average and has been increasing over the last 20 years.
• Despite progress made, the region is not on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal target 2.2 in relation to reducing stunting in children under five years by 50 percent by 2030.