Oxfam: Good Enough to Eat

Where in the world are the best and worst places to eat?

Around the world, one in eight people go to bed hungry every night despite there being enough food for everyone. Overconsumption, misuse of resources and waste are common elements of a system that leaves hundreds of millions without enough to eat.

To better understand the challenges that people face getting enough of the right food, Oxfam has compiled a snapshot of 125 countries indicating the best and worst places to eat. The data has been compiled below in an interactive graph – the countries towards the right of the graph are those where people have particular challenges in getting enough of the right food.

The index can be accessed here. 

The Good Enough to Eat Index asks four core questions and refers to two measures to help ascertain the answers, using the latest global data available . These are:

1. Do people have enough to eat? – Measured by levels of undernourishment and underweight children

2. Can people afford to eat? – Measured by food price levels compared to other goods and servicesiv and food price volatilityv

3. Is food of good quality? – Measured by diversity of dietvi and access to clean and safe water, and 4. What is the extent of unhealthy outcomes of people’s diet? – Measured by diabetes and obesityix

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Combined together, these scores give a rounded picture of how well people across the globe eat. Countries that might have been seated nearer the head of the table on the grounds of most people having enough to eat are placed further down due to other key factors like obesity or diabetes levels. Food price levels and food price volatility have also pulled countries like the UK down in the global ranking. Neither the US nor the UK makes the top dozen (10 per cent).

The Netherlands heads the table, followed by France and Switzerland. Meanwhile, Chad is the worst where food of little nutritional value is nevertheless expensive, and prepared with limited access to good sanitary conditions. Here, one in three children is underweight.

Despite the huge technological advances of modern times, we are still failing to provide people with the basic sustenance they need to survive and eat healthily. This index shows how it is a phenomenon felt most starkly in poor countries, but not exclusively. Few countries are deserving of silver service status, with obesity, food prices and nutrition rates undermining the records of many of the richest countries – a burden which often weighs heaviest on their poorest citizens.

The ranking positions Armenia as a leading country in the South Caucasus region. Azerbaijan ranks as the 91st state. Georgia is not included in the index. The other neighbors of Armenia, Turkey and Iran, rank the 77th and 80th , respectively.

Read more about research here