The indicators for the cost and affordability of a healthy diet in the ECA region are updated to 2022 in this report. In 2022, a revision to the methodology to compute affordability was introduced; for detailed information, please refer to The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2024 (FAO et al., 2024).
In Europe and Central Asia, the average cost of a healthy diet in 2022 was 3.68 PPP dollars per person per day, showing a continuous increase since 2017. It was 30 percent higher in 2022 than in 2017 (FIGURE 21, TABLE 6). The increase could be related largely to the inflation experienced in 2022 across the world. The cost in the ECA region has increased at a higher rate than the global average (11 percent) in the same period. However, on average, a healthy diet has cost less in the ECA region than in the world throughout the years, from 2017 to 2022.
By subregion, the Western Balkans had the highest cost in the ECA (4.69 PPP dollars per person per day) in 2022, followed by Central Asia (4.14 PPP dollars per person per day). In both subregions, the costs exceeded both the regional and world averages. The lowest cost of a healthy diet in 2022 was noted in CIS Europe and Ukraine, at 3.27 PPP dollars per person per day.
From 2021 to 2022, the Western Balkans and the EU-27 and the United Kingdom subregions saw the highest increases in costs, at 19 percent and 14.4 percent, respectively. The smallest increase (9 percent) was noted in the EFTA subregion.
| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |
| WORLD | 3.13 | 3.17 | 3.25 | 3.35 | 3.56 | 3.96 |
| Europe and Central Asia | 2.83 | 2.89 | 3.02 | 3.10 | 3.22 | 3.68 |
| Caucasus | 3.04 | 3.11 | 3.18 | 3.23 | 3.47 | 3.92 |
| Central Asia | 3.14 | 3.19 | 3.31 | 3.52 | 3.78 | 4.14 |
| CIS Europe and Ukraine | 2.58 | 2.64 | 2.72 | 2.80 | 2.97 | 3.27 |
| EFTA countries | 2.70 | 2.77 | 2.86 | 2.97 | 3.02 | 3.29 |
| EU-27 and the United Kingdom | 2.69 | 2.75 | 2.88 | 2.96 | 3.05 | 3.49 |
| Other | 2.97 | 3.08 | 3.23 | 3.16 | 3.29 | 3.76 |
| Western Balkans | 3.43 | 3.49 | 3.69 | 3.71 | 3.93 | 4.69 |
The indicators for the unaffordability of a healthy diet refer to the prevalence and number of people whose income is lower than the cost needed to acquire a healthy diet and basic non-food goods and services. Therefore, changes over time can be the result of changes in diet costs, incomes or both. In 2022, 6.9 percent of people in the ECA region were unable to afford a healthy diet, down from 9.7 percent in 2017, a decline of roughly 29 percent (FIGURE 22). The percentage was much lower in the ECA region than worldwide, where the estimate was 35.4 percent, down from the previous year’s 36.4 percent. The decline has been continuous since 2017 but became even more pronounced during the pandemic, dropping by almost 12 percent from 2020 to 2021 and by about 20 percent from 2020 to 2022.
In 2022, 64.3 million people (FIGURE 23, TABLE 7) in the ECA region could not afford a healthy diet. This is about 6.2 million people fewer than in 2021. The numbers declined from 2021 to 2022 in all subregions but the Caucasus, where approximately 100 000 more people were unable to afford a healthy diet, and CIS Europe and Ukraine, where the number jumped by roughly 300 000. The reductions in numbers in the ECA region could be attributed to increased incomes, which is consistent with increased economic activities in 2022 following the COVID-19 pandemic-induced declines in 2020–2021.
By subregion, the largest annual decline in unaffordability (−0.8 percentage points) in 2022 was observed in Central Asia. However, Central Asia had the highest unaffordability in the ECA region, at 16.3 percent, followed by the Caucasus at 12.2 percent. In contrast, the EFTA countries had the lowest proportion of unaffordability in 2022, at 1.3 percent.
| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |
| WORLD | 3 060.8 | 2 915.0 | 2 822.7 | 2 967.6 | 2 876.4 | 2 826.3 |
| Europe and Central Asia | 89.8 | 85.9 | 82.4 | 79.8 | 70.5 | 64.3 |
| Caucasus | 1.9 | 1.9 | 2.0 | 2.1 | 2.0 | 2.1 |
| Central Asia | 15.1 | 13.4 | 12.9 | 14.3 | 13.0 | 12.6 |
| CIS Europe and Ukraine | 6.6 | 5.8 | 5.1 | 5.2 | 4.0 | 4.3 |
| EFTA countries | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
| EU-27 and the United Kingdom | 49.1 | 48.5 | 43.8 | 43.2 | 38.9 | 35.7 |
| Other | 11.2 | 11.7 | 14.0 | 10.8 | 9.0 | 6.7 |
| Western Balkans | 3.7 | 2.2 | 2.3 | 2.2 | 1.8 | 1.8 |
FIGURE 24 compares 2019 and 2022 data on the proportion of the population of 47 countries who were unable to afford a healthy diet. Significant variations existed at the country level during these years in the unaffordability of a healthy diet. Unaffordability increased from 2019 to 2022 in eleven countries, while it mostly declined in the others. In five out of eleven countries, mostly representing the high-income countries, the increase was marginal. The largest increases occurred in Kyrgyzstan (4.9 percent), Slovakia (2.4 percent) and the Republic of Moldova (2.4 percent). The highest proportions of unaffordability in 2022 were noted in Romania (55.9 percent) and Armenia (54.9 percent). The lowest was in Iceland (0.4 percent).