(P22-24-26) Food Insecurity in a Global Context: Demographic Variation in the Global Flourishing Study

Objectives: This study examines food insecurity levels across cultures and demographics using uniform methods across 22 countries and one territory in the Global Flourishing Study. Our preregistered hypotheses posit that food insecurity levels differ across countries and sociodemographic groups, and meta-analytic pooled proportions of food insecurity vary across these groups.

Methods: The sample included respondents with Wave 1 “mid-year” survey data (N=131,487). Food insecurity was assessed with the following question: "In the last 12 months, how frequently did your household run out of food because of a lack of money or other resources? Often, sometimes, or never?". Meta-analyses and country-specific analyses described sociodemographic characteristics, ordered country-specific prevalences of food insecurity, and estimated pooled proportions for sociodemographic categories.

Results: Meta-analyzed proportions showed 61% (n=88,944; 95%CI: 0.53, 0.70) of participants reported “never” experiencing food insecurity, 28% (n=30,650; 95%CI: 0.21, 0.35) "sometimes", and 10% (n=11,462; 95%CI: 0.06, 0.14) "often" ran out of food. Country-specific prevalences of “sometime/often” food insecurity ranged from 8% in Sweden to 89% in Nigeria. Some upper-middle income countries, such as South Africa (80%), Egypt (65%), and Indonesia (65%), showed more prevalent food insecurity compared to lower-middle income countries, such as India (52%). Respondents with less than 9 years of education (48%), unemployment (50%) and homemaker status (45%), 18-50 years of age (41-42%), domestic partner, separated, and divorced marital status (41-42%), female (40%), and born in another country (40%) reported “sometimes/often” food insecurity rather than “never”.

Conclusions: This study provides a comprehensive overview of the national prevalences and variation in food insecurity levels across demographic groups in a cross-national sample, furthering insights into food insecurity disparities in various parts of the world.

Funding Sources: John Templeton Foundation, Templeton Religion Trust, Templeton World Charity Foundation, Well-Being for Planet Earth Foundation, Fetzer Institute, Well Being Trust, Paul L. Foster Family Foundation, and the David and Carol Myers Foundation