Ireland · Undernourishment · % of population

## What this measures

The share of people in Ireland whose habitual food consumption does not supply the dietary energy needed for a normal, active and healthy life. It is FAO's prevalence of undernourishment, the indicator for UN Sustainable Development Goal target 2.1 (zero hunger). Annual, percent of population.

## Why it matters

Hunger is the bluntest measure of whether an economy feeds its people. It rises with food prices, drought, conflict and falling incomes. It shapes how much room a government has on food prices, subsidies and taxes, and how secure a company's social licence is where it operates.

## How to read it

Lower is better. FAO reports rates below 2.5% as "<2.5", and the World Bank publishes those as 2.5, so a reading of 2.5 means "under 2.5%"; a flat line at 2.5 means hunger is too rare to measure precisely. Above that floor, read the direction against its own history and against regional peers.

## What it does not say

It is a modelled estimate from food supply, consumption and population data, not a survey count. FAO publishes country values as three-year averages, so sudden shocks are smoothed, and it revises the whole series with each annual report. Published with a lag of about two years. It says nothing about diet quality or micronutrient deficiency.

## Source

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), via World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator `SN.ITK.DEFC.ZS`, annual. Licence per the World Bank's indicator metadata: CC BY 4.0. Palanor rewrites the full history each week (/api/cron/sovereign-sync), so revisions carry through.