Sri Lanka has the least number of hungry people in South Asia and the number of people going hungry has steadily declined, the 2014 Global Hunger Index (GHI) released Monday showed.

Sri Lanka ranked 39th this year, four notches above last year's rank, in the GHI, released for the ninth year by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Welthungerhilfe, and Concern Worldwide.

Sri Lanka's 2014 GHI score dropped to 15.1 this year from the 16.8 in 2013.

The 2014 GHI examines levels of hunger in 120 developing countries and countries in transition and scores them based on three equally weighted indicators: the proportion of people who are undernourished, the proportion of children under five who are underweight, and the mortality rate of children under five.

In Sri Lanka, proportion of undernourished in the population steadily decreased from a 33.4% in 1990-1992 period to 22.8% in the 2011-2013 period.

Prevalence of underweight in children under five years however marginally increased in the 2009 - 2013 period to 21.6% from 21.1% recorded for 2003 -2007.

The Under-five mortality rate which indicates the deaths of children under five years of age has been declining from 2.1% in 1990 to 1.0% in 2012 and is the lowest in South Asia.

Nepal ranked 44, India ranked 55th ,Bangladesh 57th and Pakistan 57th in the GHI.