Can people afford the foods needed for a healthy diet? The answer depends not only on food prices and nutrition needs, but also on incomes, markets, and broader economic conditions.
The latest Cost and Affordability of a Healthy Diet (CoAHD) estimates, jointly produced by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Bank Group, provide an updated picture of whether healthy diets are within reach across countries, regions, and income groups. The latest estimates are featured in the newly released The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2026, the United Nations’ annual flagship report on global food security and nutrition.
Beyond the headline numbers, we delve into how diet costs and affordability together shape economic access to healthy diets.
What the latest data show
The population-weighted global average cost of a healthy diet, defined as the minimum cost of purchasing a healthy diet basket composed of locally available foods that meet dietary guidelines, reached 4.28 Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) dollars in 2025. At the same time, about 2.7 billion people — roughly one third of the world’s population — were unable to afford the diet.
The cost varies substantially across World Bank country income groups and regions. Lower-middle-income economies had the highest average cost in 2025, at 4.36 PPP dollars per person per day, and also saw a steep rise since 2017 — an increase of 47.8 percent. High-income economies, meanwhile, recorded the highest year-over-year increase in 2025 alone, with average cost rising by 3.5 percent to 4.20 PPP dollars, and by 47.9 percent since 2017. By contrast, low-income economies experienced a reversal in recent years, with the average cost decreasing after peaking in 2023.
Among World Bank regions, Latin America and the Caribbean recorded the highest cost of a healthy diet in most years, reaching 4.91 PPP dollars per person per day in 2025. North America had the lowest regional cost, at 3.02 PPP dollars per person per day in 2025.
READ MORE: https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/opendata/can-income-keep-up-with-the-rising-cost-of-a-healthy-diet–new-c
