Global hunger levels fell for the third consecutive year in 2025, with an estimated 7.8 percent of the world’s population facing undernourishment, according to the latest report from five United Nations agencies. The 2026 edition of The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) indicates that approximately 645 million people were affected by hunger in 2025, a decrease of 14 million from 2024 and 43 million from 2022. While these figures confirm a sustained improvement, progress remains fragile and unevenly distributed, leaving the world off track to meet the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals for food security.
The report, published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP), and the World Health Organization (WHO), highlights that recovery trends vary significantly by geography. Asia, along with Latin America and the Caribbean, has shown consistent progress in recent years. In contrast, Africa faces a more complex challenge. Although the share of the African population facing hunger decreased slightly from 20.3 percent in 2024 to 20.0 percent in 2025, the continent now holds the highest number of hungry people in absolute terms—approximately 309 million—surpassing Asia’s 292 million.
Regional Disparities and Food Access
Beyond absolute hunger, broader measures of food security also show improvement, though they remain higher than pre-pandemic levels. In 2025, an estimated 25.8 percent of the global population, or roughly 2.1 billion people, experienced moderate or severe food insecurity. This represents a reduction of 86 million people compared to 2024. However, the regional divide remains stark. More than half of Africa’s population, at 56.6 percent, faced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2025, compared to 20.3 percent in Asia and 8.7 percent in Northern America and Europe.
Gender and location continue to be significant factors in food access. Women remain disproportionately affected by food insecurity, although the report notes a slight narrowing of the gender gap in 2025. Additionally, rural populations continue to experience higher rates of food insecurity than those in urban or peri-urban settings.
Impact of Conflict and Economic Disruptions
The report provides updated projections for the next five years, emphasizing that conflict and climate-related shocks pose ongoing threats to food stability. The conflict in the Middle East has disrupted energy and fertilizer markets, contributing to higher food inflation. Depending on the duration of these impacts, the UN estimates that between 510 million and 520 million people may still face hunger by 2030, a figure that exceeds pre-conflict projections of 503 million.
FAO Director-General QU Dongyu noted that recent crises, including the war in Ukraine and the Gaza crisis, have tested the resilience of global agrifood systems. “Ending hunger and making healthy diets affordable requires political commitment, sustained investment and enabling policies,” QU stated. These sentiments were echoed by WFP Acting Executive Director Carl Skau, who emphasized that conflict and climate shocks force families to count the cost of food, pushing many beyond their means.
Stalled Nutrition Targets and Rising Costs
Global nutrition targets for 2030 are currently not being met, with indicators such as child stunting and wasting showing only marginal improvement. Anaemia among women aged 15 to 49 is worsening, and adult obesity has risen steadily to 16.2 percent in 2024, up from 12.1 percent in 2012. While child stunting is declining in Africa and on track in Asia, the report warns that nearly all regions are seeing widening gaps in addressing maternal anaemia.
The affordability of a healthy diet remains a primary barrier. In 2025, the average global cost of a healthy diet rose to 4.28 purchasing power parity (PPP) dollars per person per day. While the total number of people unable to afford a healthy diet declined to 2.69 billion—down from 2.97 billion in 2021—the burden of these costs is not shared equally. In Africa, 66.6 percent of the population cannot afford a healthy diet, a figure more than double that of Asia or Latin America.
WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus identified specific policy interventions that could help address these trends. “We know what works: policies that make healthy food the easy choice, promoting breastfeeding, front-of-pack labelling, taxing unhealthy products, and protecting children from harmful marketing,” he said. The report concludes that reducing these costs requires structural improvements in food value chains, specifically targeting the 70 to 75 percent of consumer prices generated by post-farmgate activities such as logistics and processing.
As the international community works toward the 2030 deadline, the UN agencies emphasize that investment must be scaled up to ensure that nutritious food is accessible rather than a luxury. For further updates on global food security data and policy developments, readers may monitor the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2 portal.
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