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Data

Cost of a calorie sufficient diet as a share of average food expenditure

What you should know about this indicator

An energy sufficient diet provides enough of a starchy staple food for day-to-day subsistence, without either nutrient adequacy or adherence to dietary guidelines.

Cost of a calorie sufficient diet as a share of average food expenditure
Percentage of the cost of an energy sufficient diet to total food expenditure per capita per day from national accounts.
Source
FAO and World Bank (2025), using data and methods from Herforth et al. (2022) – with minor processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
August 4, 2025
Next expected update
August 2026
Date range
2021–2021
Unit
%

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

Herforth et al. (2022), adapted by World Bank – Food Prices for Nutrition

Food Prices for Nutrition provides indicators on the cost and affordability of healthy diets in each country, showing the population's physical and economic access to sufficient quantities of locally available items for an active and healthy life. It also provides indicators on the cost and affordability of an energy-sufficient diet and of a nutrient-adequate diet. These indicators are explained in detail in the Food Prices for Nutrition DataHub.

Retrieved on
August 4, 2025
Retrieved from
https://databank.worldbank.org/source/food-prices-for-nutrition
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.

Food Prices for Nutrition provides indicators on the cost and affordability of healthy diets in each country, showing the population's physical and economic access to sufficient quantities of locally available items for an active and healthy life. It also provides indicators on the cost and affordability of an energy-sufficient diet and of a nutrient-adequate diet. These indicators are explained in detail in the Food Prices for Nutrition DataHub.

Retrieved on
August 4, 2025
Retrieved from
https://databank.worldbank.org/source/food-prices-for-nutrition
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.

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All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.

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  • All data produced by third-party providers and made available by Our World in Data are subject to the license terms from the original providers. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always cite them appropriately (see below). This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining and updating valuable data.
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Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Cost of a calorie sufficient diet as a share of average food expenditure”, part of the following publication: Hannah Ritchie, Pablo Rosado, and Max Roser (2023) - “Food Prices”. Data adapted from Herforth et al. (2022), adapted by World Bank. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260410-215714/grapher/cost-calorie-sufficient-diet-share-food-expenditure.html [online resource] (archived on April 10, 2026).

How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

FAO and World Bank (2025), using data and methods from Herforth et al. (2022) – with minor processing by Our World in Data

Full citation

FAO and World Bank (2025), using data and methods from Herforth et al. (2022) – with minor processing by Our World in Data. “Cost of a calorie sufficient diet as a share of average food expenditure” [dataset]. Herforth et al. (2022), adapted by World Bank, “Food Prices for Nutrition 4.0” [original data]. Retrieved April 10, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260410-215714/grapher/cost-calorie-sufficient-diet-share-food-expenditure.html (archived on April 10, 2026).

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