Nearly two out of every five people in Bangladesh are unable to afford healthy food due to financial constraints. In 2025, approximately 67.8 million people in the country suffered from this crisis, placing Bangladesh in a precarious situation second only to Pakistan in South Asia.
This information was revealed on Tuesday, July 21, in a joint report titled "The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2026," published by five United Nations agencies.
The report was compiled jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP), and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Data shows that last year, 63 percent of people in Pakistan lacked the financial capacity to purchase healthy food, while the rate in Bangladesh stood at 38.6 percent.
The report defines a "healthy diet basket" as food that supplies 2,330 kilocalories of energy per capita daily across six food groups: starchy staples, animal source foods, pulses/legumes, nuts and seeds, vegetables, fruits, and oils and fats.
According to the report, approximately 2.69 billion people globally, or 32.7 percent of the world population, were unable to afford a healthy diet in 2025. The highest rate of this crisis was observed in Africa at 66.6 percent, followed by Asia at 28.9 percent and Latin America and the Caribbean at 25.7 percent.
Calculations in the report indicate that the average cost of acquiring a healthy daily diet for an individual in Bangladesh rose from $3.09 in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) terms in 2017 to $4.59 in 2025. PPP refers to the amount of local currency required to purchase the same quantity of goods in Bangladesh that could be bought with $4.59 in the United States.
A significant portion of this expenditure goes toward purchasing animal source foods, fruits, and vegetables, whereas costs associated with starchy foods are comparatively much lower. In terms of the cost of healthy diets in South Asia, Bangladesh ranks third behind Bhutan ($6.17) and Sri Lanka ($5.21). Conversely, while Pakistan has the highest proportion of people unable to afford healthy food, the cost of such food there is the lowest in the region at $3.94.
Despite rising prices for healthy food, affordability in Bangladesh has improved over time. In 2017, 62.8 percent of the population—representing 101.8 million people—lacked the means to purchase nutritious food, but by 2025 that figure dropped to 38.6 percent, or 67.8 million people. The report notes that over the past few years, the income allocated by people for food expenditure has grown faster than food prices.
Commenting on the fact that two out of five people still lack the ability to buy healthy food despite these gains, Professor Md. Ruhul Amin of the Institute of Nutrition and Food Science at the University of Dhaka stated that a healthy diet remains out of reach for many low-income and lower-middle-class families. High prices for milk and dairy products, fish, meat, and fruit compel people to consume them in limited quantities. When global prices rise, local markets reflect the increases rapidly, but when global prices fall, local markets are very slow to adjust. Consequently, even with a slight increase in purchasing power, healthy food remains beyond the grasp of the general public.
Globally, the average cost of a healthy diet has increased. From $2.94 in 2017 and $3.44 in 2021, the cost reached $4.28 by 2025, with Latin America and the Caribbean seeing expenses climb to $4.91. However, over the same period, the number of people unable to afford healthy food declined slightly from 2.97 billion (37.4 percent) to 2.69 billion (32.7 percent).
To bring nutritious food within the purchasing power of ordinary citizens, the report outlines several vital recommendations. These include implementing targeted policies tailored to local conditions to boost food supplies and lower the costs associated with food production and distribution systems. The report also emphasizes improving transportation networks, storage facilities, processing methods, and market information systems, alongside preventing food waste.
