Global hunger declined for a third consecutive year in 2025, demonstrating that progress is possible. However, the improvements remain fragile, unevenly distributed and insufficient to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, according to The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2026 (SOFI 2026) report, released on Tuesday by five United Nations specialised agencies.
The report estimates that 7.8 per cent of the global population faced hunger in 2025, down from 8.1 per cent in 2024 and 8.6 per cent in 2022, confirming a sustained, albeit slow, improvement. This means that around 645 million people were affected by hunger in 2025, representing a reduction of nearly 14 million compared to 2024 and 43 million compared to 2022.
Despite global progress, recovery remains uneven across regions. Asia, together with Latin America and the Caribbean, has recorded steady improvements in recent years. In contrast, Africa is now home to approximately 309 million hungry people, compared with 292 million in Asia. Although Africa's previously rising trend is beginning to stabilise, with the share of its population facing hunger decreasing from 20.3 per cent in 2024 to 20.0 per cent in 2025, the continent now has the highest number of hungry people in absolute terms amid a rapidly growing population.
Broader measures of food access tell a similar story. In 2025, an estimated 25.8 per cent of the global population (around 2.1 billion people) experienced moderate or severe food insecurity, meaning they were at times forced to compromise on the quality or quantity of the food they ate. This is down from 27.1 per cent in 2024 and 28.7 per cent in 2020 - equivalent to nearly 86 million fewer people than in 2024 and 135 million fewer than in 2020, though still above pre-pandemic levels.
Regional disparities remain stark. More than half of Africa's population (56.6 per cent) faced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2025, compared to 20.3 per cent in Asia, 22.9 per cent in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 8.7 per cent in Northern America and Europe. Food insecurity also continues to be more prevalent in rural areas than in peri-urban and urban areas, while women remain disproportionately affected, although the gender gap narrowed slightly in 2025.
Hunger projections in the context of the Middle East conflict
The annual report also offers updated hunger projections for the next five years in light of the conflict in the Middle East. Depending on the length of the impact of the crisis on food inflation - which is driven by higher energy and fertilizer prices - approximately 510 to 520 million people may still be facing hunger in 2030 (compared to the lower projection of 503 million in the pre-conflict scenario), with the global number of undernourished people expected to decrease by 20 per cent. However, other potential disruptors, including the effects of weather extremes such as El Niño in 2026 and 2027, are not considered in these projections and could further compound these effects.
The report's joint authors - the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN World Food Programme (WFP), and the World Health Organization (WHO) - warn that the 2026 Middle East conflict, along with weather extremes and the reductions in official development assistance and humanitarian funding, are threatening to undermine the progress made to end global hunger.
Slow progress on global nutrition targets
The report highlights that global progress on maternal and child nutrition also remains insufficient to meet international commitments, including the 2030 nutrition targets.
Indicators such as child stunting, wasting, overweight, low birthweight and exclusive breastfeeding show only marginal improvements and progress is too slow to meet the targets. At the same time, anaemia among women aged 15 to 49 years is worsening, while the prevalence of adult obesity shows a steady increase - from 12.1 per cent in 2012 to 16.2 per cent in 2024 - contrary to the target of halting its rise by 2025. Only 30.8 per cent of children aged 6 to 23 months worldwide consume a minimally diverse diet and 150 million children under five years of age are still stunted.
Progress again varies significantly across regions. The prevalence of child stunting is declining in Africa and is on track to meet the 2030 target in Asia, while exclusive breastfeeding rates are improving across all regions where data is available. However, nearly all regions are experiencing widening gaps in addressing anaemia among women, and child overweight is increasing rapidly in Oceania.
The cost of a healthy diet
This year's SOFI report takes a closer look at the cost of a healthy diet - the average minimum expenditure required to obtain locally available foods that meet energy and most nutrient requirements. According to FAO and WHO, a healthy diet is one that is adequate, balanced, diverse, and moderate.
The report underscores that costs remain a major constraint to achieving SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), although lowering such costs alone will not be sufficient to improve dietary quality and nutrition outcomes.
In 2025, the average global cost of a healthy diet rose to 4.28 purchasing power parity (PPP) dollars per person per day, up from 3.44 PPP dollars in 2021 and 2.94 PPP dollars in 2017, with the highest levels recorded in Latin America and the Caribbean (4.91 PPP dollars). At the same time, the number of people unable to afford a healthy diet has declined - from 2.97 billion (37.4 per cent of the global population) in 2021 to 2.69 billion (32.7 per cent) in 2025.
However, this trend masks significant regional disparities. In Africa, affordability worsened markedly, with 66.6 per cent of the population unable to afford a healthy diet in 2025 - more than double the levels observed in Asia and in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Healthy diet costs vary widely across regions due to structural differences in agrifood systems. Animal source foods, fruits and vegetables account for the largest share of costs, while starchy staples contribute relatively little. Animal source foods are the largest contributor to the cost of a healthy diet in Africa, whereas vegetables represent the largest share in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Food value chains are a major determinant of prices. Post-farmgate activities account for 70 to 75 per cent of what consumers pay, with up to 40 per cent of total costs arising in processing, logistics and wholesale. Improving efficiency in these segments is therefore critical, particularly for lowering the cost of perishable, nutrient-rich foods.
Reducing the cost of a healthy diet requires context-specific policy responses that expand the supply of nutritious foods while lowering structural costs across agrifood value chains. This includes investments in infrastructure, research and development, irrigation and cold chains, alongside reforms in subsidies, trade facilitation and regulatory frameworks.
Targeted interventions that boost productivity, reduce losses and promote sustainable practices can simultaneously improve nutrition outcomes, strengthen resilience and support climate goals.
"The work that lies ahead over the years to 2030 is immense. However, a world in which a healthy diet is no longer out of reach for nearly one in three people is a world worth building," the report argues.
What they said:
FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu: "The report shows that progress is possible, but we must move faster. Ending hunger and making healthy diets affordable requires political commitment, sustained investment and enabling policies. Recent crises - from natural disasters like the COVID-19 pandemic to man-made disaster like hotspots of conflicts, the war in Ukraine, the Gaza crisis, and the recent Strait of Hormuz disruption - have demonstrated both the resilience of agrifood systems and the need to strengthen them further to better serve the world's most vulnerable people, farmers and consumers."
IFAD President, Alvaro Lario: "SOFI tells us that the cost of a healthy diet continues to rise and that nearly 2.7 billion people may still be unable to afford a healthy diet. Resilient value chains must be a central part of the answer. Our task now is to turn the evidence SOFI provides into investment - and to do so through partnership. Together, we can build the value chains, market systems and rural economies that make healthy food affordable for all."
UNICEF Executive Director, Catherine Russell: "Every child deserves the chance to grow and develop to their full potential, and this starts with access to nutritious, affordable food. This report is a stark reminder that food systems fail millions of children and families. Food, health, education and social protection must go hand in hand to protect the most vulnerable children and women from global shocks."
WFP Acting Executive Director, Carl Skau: "Behind every number in this report is a family counting the cost of food. Conflict and climate shocks push them further beyond their means. We must continue working with partner agencies, governments and communities to build food systems that hold up under shock, so families can afford nutritious diets, even in times of crisis. We now need sustained investment to match the scale of the challenge."
WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: "While we welcome the clear progress we have made in reducing hunger, a healthy diet still remains unaffordable for one in three people globally. Obesity is rising and progress on maternal and child nutrition is stalling. But 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. Healthy diets are not a luxury - they are the foundation of health and must be within everyone's reach."
