Sri Lanka ranks 53rd in 2026 Global Hunger Index
(Photo by Christoph Theisinger on Unsplash)
Sri Lanka ranks 53rd out of 122 countries in the 2026 Global Hunger Index (GHI), with a score of 10.2 placing it in the moderate hunger category, close to the low hunger threshold.
The 2025 edition listed Sri Lanka in 61st place among 123 countries, with a score of 11.2, also in the moderate category. However, the GHI warns that rankings and scores from separate annual editions are not directly comparable because underlying data are revised and the countries included can change. The difference in published positions should therefore not be treated as a direct measure of improvement over one year.
The latest country profile shows that 4.9% of Sri Lanka’s population is undernourished, while 10.1% of children under five are stunted and 9.3% suffer from wasting. The under-five mortality rate is 0.6%. Stunting means low height for a child’s age, while wasting means low weight for their height.
The comparable historical figures presented in the 2026 report show substantial long-term progress. Sri Lanka’s score fell from 22.1 in 2000 to 19.9 in 2006, rose to 20.8 in 2012, and then declined to 11.4 in 2018 and 10.2 in 2026. Lower scores indicate less severe hunger.
According to the report, Sri Lanka recorded the lowest score in South Asia in every reference year covered. Its low levels of undernourishment and child mortality have brought it close to the low hunger category, which covers scores of 9.9 or below.
However, the report highlights that progress in long-term hunger indicators does not remove the risk of sudden food crises. It identifies Sri Lanka as the only new addition to the Global Report on Food Crises’ country coverage for 2025, following Cyclone Ditwah late that year. This illustrates how extreme weather can cause acute food insecurity even where broader hunger indicators are improving.
Globally, the 2026 GHI score is 18.1, also in the moderate category, compared with a recalculated 2018 score of 17.6 in the same edition. This increase interrupts the longer-term decline recorded since 2000. The report links the setback to overlapping conflicts, extreme weather and economic shocks, and warns that geopolitical tensions, trade disruptions and an intensifying El Niño could add further pressure on food and nutrition security.
The GHI combines four indicators: undernourishment, child stunting, child wasting and under-five mortality. Its 2026 scores draw on data from 2021–2025, rather than measurements taken entirely in 2026. The latest undernourishment figures cover 2023–2025, stunting and child mortality figures relate to 2024, and wasting data come from 2021–2025.