Chapter 4 Updates to the Cost and Affordability of a Healthy Diet
Key messages
- In the ECA region, the average cost of a healthy diet in 2022 was 3.68 purchasing power parity (PPP) dollars per person per day, marking a 14 percent increase from 2021. This rise is consistent with the higher food prices observed in 2021. On average, the cost of a healthy diet in the ECA region is lower than the global average, which stood at 3.96 PPP dollars per person per day in 2022.
- In 2022, 64.3 million people in the ECA region could not afford a healthy diet. This is 6.2 million people fewer than in the previous year. The reductions in numbers in the ECA region could be attributed to increased incomes, likely due to heightened economic activities in 2022 following the declines induced by the COVID-19 pandemic in previous years.
- In 2022, 6.9 percent of people in the ECA region were unable to afford a healthy diet, down from 7.6 percent in 2021. This proportion is significantly lower than the global estimate of 35.4 percent. Among subregions, Central Asia recorded the highest prevalence of unaffordability in 2022, at 16.3 percent, while the EFTA countries had the lowest estimate, at 1.3 percent.