Pakistan's Hunger Score Worsens to 25.5 in 2026 Global Hunger Index

Pakistan's score on the 2026 Global Hunger Index rose to 25.5 this year from 24.0 in 2018, placing it 106th out of 123 ranked countries and keeping it in the index's "serious" category, according to the report's own country data table, published October 14 by Welthungerhilfe, the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict (IFHV) and the Swiss development agency Helvetas.

The score is worse than every other major South Asian economy's: India scored 24.1, Bangladesh 19.2, Nepal 14.5 and Sri Lanka 10.2, all improvements on their 2018 figures. Dawn reported that Pakistan recorded the highest, meaning worst, score among the region's major economies this year. Neighbouring Afghanistan scored higher still, at 28.6, though it continued a longer decline from 38.1 in 2006.

How the score is built

The Global Hunger Index combines four indicators into a single 100-point score: undernourishment (a third of the weight), child mortality (also a third), and child stunting and child wasting (a sixth each). Dawn's analysis of the underlying country data found undernourishment in Pakistan has moved from the WHO's "low" to "medium" classification since 2018, and child wasting has risen toward the "high" threshold. Child stunting remains "very high" by WHO standards but continues to fall, while child mortality has dropped from "very high" in 2000 to "medium" today — the one indicator moving in the right direction.

A regional and global reversal

Pakistan's worsening score is not an isolated case. South Asia's regional score fell from 37.5 in 2000 to a low of 24.7 in 2018, then rose slightly to 23.5 this year — still classified "serious." Globally, the index's authors describe 2026 as the first reversal in two decades of progress: the world score rose to 18.1 from 17.6 in 2018, after falling steadily from 28.2 in 2000. Three of the four component indicators — undernourishment, child stunting and child wasting — worsened worldwide since 2018; only child mortality kept declining, and only slightly.

What the report blames

The index's authors point to overlapping shocks rather than a single cause. State-based armed conflicts have reached their highest number since the Second World War, and the report says conflict remains one of the primary drivers of acute hunger worldwide. Dawn's reporting adds Pakistan-specific pressures: persistent food-price inflation and economic instability, plus crop losses from this year's floods and heavy monsoon rains, which Build Better Pakistan covered as they unfolded. The index separately flags below-average rainfall and above-average temperatures hurting Afghanistan's 2026 cereal harvest.

Compounding the hunger numbers themselves, the report says humanitarian and development financing for food security in crisis-hit countries has fallen to levels last seen in 2016-17, forcing cuts to major relief operations even as needs grow. In six countries, including Sudan and Yemen, data gaps were severe enough that a full 2026 score could not be calculated at all.

What to watch

The index was timed to World Food Day on October 16 and a UN ministerial conference on ending violence against children planned for Manila in November. Its authors note that national progress is still possible: 31 countries have cut their GHI scores by at least 10 percent since 2018, and nine by more than 20 percent, evidence they say shows hunger can fall even amid global headwinds. Whether Pakistan manages a similar reversal before the next index depends partly on food-price trends already shaping the country's wider nutrition picture, where the FAO separately found most Pakistanis cannot afford a healthy diet.

Build Better Pakistan's Health Desk is tracking Pakistan's food security indicators and will follow up as the government responds to the 2026 index.