Food Self-Sufficiency Rate
Food Self-Sufficiency Rate by country
Commentary
Notable countries
Paraguay leads the ranking at 378.4% of domestic supply, followed by Argentina, Uruguay, Ukraine, and Brazil, showing exceptionally high food self-sufficiency. At the other end, Vatican City is lowest at 1%, with Monaco and Singapore also among the weakest performers. A notable surprise is that several wealthy Gulf states, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, appear near the bottom, while South American countries dominate the top of the table.
Regional trends
South America stands out clearly, with an average food self-sufficiency rate of 176.5%, far above every other continent. Europe is a distant second at 87.77%, while Asia (72.17%), Oceania (71.09%), Africa (67.77%), and North America (67.06%) cluster much closer together and all sit below the global mean of 80.29. The regional picture suggests especially strong surplus production in South America, while most other regions are more mixed or more dependent on external supply.
Data source
The data come from FAO for 2020-2022 and are measured as the percentage of domestic supply. Coverage includes 197 countries. Values above 100% indicate production exceeding domestic supply, so the distribution includes very high outliers.
Interpretation
Because higher is better, high values indicate that a country produces enough food to cover domestic supply and, in some cases, far more than it needs. Low values point to strong reliance on imports or limited domestic production capacity. Overall, the data show very wide differences between countries, with a few major agricultural producers posting large surpluses while many small or resource-constrained states remain heavily dependent on outside food sources.