Bangladesh ahead of India and Pakistan in hunger index, in moderate band with score of 19.2

Bangladesh has kept up steady progress against hunger and malnutrition in South Asia, while Pakistan's situation has slipped backwards again. The 2026 Global Hunger Index (GHI) report, published last week, shows Bangladesh with a score of 19.2, which falls in the moderate band.

India's score in the same index is 24.1, classed as serious. Pakistan scores 25.5, also serious, and worse than its 24.0 score in 2018. Pakistan ranks 106th among the 122 countries included in the index.

The report says India, Bangladesh and Nepal have all improved steadily on the hunger index since 2000. Pakistan's progress, however, has stalled and its situation is deteriorating again. Within South Asia, Sri Lanka and Nepal are in a better position than Bangladesh.

The report was published jointly by Welthungerhilfe, the Bonn-based German organisation working against hunger, the Zurich-based aid agency Helvetas, and the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict at Germany's Ruhr University.

Experts identify the drivers of Bangladesh's progress as wider employment opportunities for women, community-based healthcare, improved sanitation and expanded schooling for girls. Progress in these four areas is seen as the main foundation of the country's success.

Javed Hassan, a London-based financial analyst, told the Japanese outlet Nikkei Asia that Bangladesh's garment export sector has created employment for women. Community health workers have carried healthcare to people's doorsteps, while better sanitation and wider educational opportunities for girls have also contributed to the progress.

Niaz Murtaza, an independent economist based in Islamabad, also believes that the steady expansion of women's employment has supported Bangladesh's advance against hunger. Experts say India's situation is not very different from Pakistan's; although India's score is close to Pakistan's, Bangladesh has achieved notable progress.

In Pakistan, by contrast, the report finds that rising food prices, child malnutrition, limited employment for women, inadequate investment in health and education, and climate-driven disasters are deepening the hunger crisis. Only about a dozen countries score worse than Pakistan, among them Afghanistan, Sierra Leone and Syria.

The Global Hunger Index is built on four main indicators: undernourishment, or not getting enough food; child mortality; children being too short for their age; and children weighing too little for their height. Undernourishment and child mortality each carry 33.3 percent of the total weight, with 16.7 percent each for the other two indicators.

Scores are set on a scale from zero to 100. Below 10 means a low level of hunger, 10 to 19.9 is moderate, 20 to 34.9 is serious, 35 to 49.9 is alarming, and 50 or above is extremely alarming. On that scale, Bangladesh's 19.2 sits right at the upper edge of the moderate band.

Pakistan's 25.5 points to a serious hunger situation in the country. The deterioration since 2018 has raised concern about its food and nutrition outlook, while Bangladesh's steady improvement stands out as a significant success in the South Asian context.

Bangladesh's score nevertheless remains in the moderate band, only slightly away from the serious threshold. Holding on to this progress, and continuing to improve food and nutrition security, is now the central challenge — with investment in women's employment, healthcare and education playing the biggest role, according to the experts' analysis.