ISLAMABAD: Pakistan was ranked at the 106th spot out of a total list of 122 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI), marking the second-highest score for the country in South Asia region and reflecting an alarming level of food insecurity and malnutrition.

The GHI is an annual report jointly published by global humanitarian organization Concern Worldwide, private aid organization Welthungerhilfe, and the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict (IFHV). The index aims to measure and track hunger at the global, regional, and country levels. The GHI says on its website it aims to trigger action to reduce hunger worldwide.

With a score of 25.5 on the GHI, Pakistan has a “serious level of hunger,” the index said on its website. It added that the South Asian region has a regional GHI score of 23.5 while the global score is 18.1.

“In the 2026 Global Hunger Index, Pakistan ranks 106th out of 122 countries with sufficient data to calculate 2026 GHI scores,” the index stated.

Only Afghanistan has a higher score than Pakistan in the South Asia region. Pakistan’s neighbor was placed at number 108 on the list, with a score of 28.6 on the index.

Pakistan’s score has fallen sharply from an alarming 36.2 on the index in 2000 to 25.5 in 2026, it said, showing “substantial long-term improvement.”

The GHI said it calculates the score based on four components; undernourishment, child stunting, child wasting and child mortality. Undernourishment refers to the population with an insufficient calorie intake while child stunting refers to the number of children below the age of five whose height is low for their age.

Child wasting refers to the number of children under the age of five who have low weight for their height, while child mortality refers to the number of children who die before their fifth birthday, reflecting an unhealthy mix of inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environment.

“Based on the values of the four indicators, the GHI score on a 100-point scale reflects the current hunger situation, where 0 is the best score (no hunger) and 100 is the worst score,” the GHI says on its website.

The index said 16.1 percent of Pakistan’s population is malnourished, while 33.6 percent of its children under five are stunted. The report said 9.8 percent of Pakistani children are wasted while 5.6 percent of the children in the country die before the age of five.

According to the World Food Programme (WFP), malnutrition remains a critical challenge in Pakistan, with 40 percent of the country’s children under five stunted, requiring sustained multi-sectoral action to ensure access to nutritious diets and essential services for women, children, and adolescents.

The WFP has pointed out that food insecurity also persists across many districts of the country. It said that as per the latest Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) analysis, 7.5 million people in Pakistan are in Phase 3 (crisis) or above, including 1.25 million experiencing critical levels of acute food insecurity.

Pakistan is also one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world, suffering from increasingly frequent and intense floods, droughts and heatwaves. Climate-related damage from floods, heatwaves and infrastructure destruction is killing thousands of people every year, despite the South Asian country contributing less than 1 percent to global emissions.