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To pinpoint the hungriest so resource can be targeted most effectively, FAO divides countries into five food deprivation groups. These are based on a calculation that combines prevalence of hunger (the proportion of the population that is undernourished) with depth of hunger (the average number of kilocalories lacking in the diets of the undernourished).
Countries with the highest prevalence and greatest depth of hunger make up group 5, which includes 18 countries in Africa, as well as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Haiti, the Democratic People 's Republic of Korea and Mongolia. These countries face the most difficult problems in feeding their people, due to instability and conflict, poor governance, erratic weather, poverty, agricultural failure, population pressure and fragile ecosystems. Reducing the depth of people 's hunger may be a more realistic goal in these nations than eliminating it outright. At the other extreme are the countries in group 1,with both low prevalence and low depth of hunger. All 52 of these nations, which include the industrialized countries, 11 countries in transition and 15 relatively high-income developing countries, enjoy peace and economic prosperity.
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