The HVI is a composite of three variables: the percentage by which food availability falls short of 2300 kcals per capita per day in a country; the percentage of the national population that earns less than US $2 per day (measured in 2005 purchasing power parity [PPP] dollars or ‘international dollars’); and the percentage of children below the age of five in a country who are of short stature or suffering from growth failure. These three components reflect food availability within a country, average ability to access food, and a nutritional outcome. The variables are also meant to capture dimensions of vulnerability at three different scales: national (in terms of food supply), household (in terms of income), and individual (in terms of nutritional outcome). The three elements (all percentages below a threshold deemed acceptable) are then averaged to form an HVI score.

Hunger Vulnerability Index