Global hunger fell overall last year, marking a modest yet welcome retreat from previous peaks, but the crisis continued to worsen sharply across most of Africa and western Asia. According to a comprehensive new report published by five specialized United Nations agencies, systemic vulnerabilities, lingering economic shocks, and extreme weather events continue to obstruct the path toward universal food security.
The findings were detailed in The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report, which was released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The data shows that roughly 8.2 percent of the world’s population—representing about 673 million people—suffered from hunger in 2024. While this figure remains staggeringly high, it represents a downward trend from previous years, falling from 8.7 percent in 2022 and 8.5 percent in 2023.
The annual assessment is a collaborative effort produced by the FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the UN World Food Programme (WFP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the World Health Organization (WHO). Together, these organizations monitor the metrics of malnutrition, food affordability, and global nutrition to measure progress toward international development goals.
"While it is encouraging to see a decrease in the global hunger rate, we must recognize that progress is uneven," said FAO Director-General QU Dongyu in a press release accompanying the report. "SOFI 2025 serves as a critical reminder that we need to intensify efforts to ensure that everyone has access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food. To achieve this, we must work collaboratively and innovatively with governments, organizations, and communities to address the specific challenges faced by vulnerable populations, especially in regions where hunger remains persistent."
The report indicates that between 638 million and 720 million people faced hunger last year. This range reflects a decrease of approximately 15 million people compared to 2023, and a drop of 22 million from the totals recorded in 2022.
Regional disparities, however, highlight a deeply fractured global landscape. In Asia, the number of undernourished people fell significantly, dropping to 6.7 percent of the population down from 7.9 percent two years earlier. Similarly, the Caribbean and Latin America experienced measurable improvements. Undernourishment in those regions decreased to 5.1 percent of the population—accounting for 34 million people—in 2024, rebounding positively from a peak of 6.1 percent recorded in 2020.
"Unfortunately, this positive trend contrasts sharply with the steady rise in hunger across Africa and western Asia, including in many countries affected by prolonged food crises," the FAO stated.
The proportion of the population facing hunger in Africa surpassed 20 percent in 2024, directly impacting 307 million people. Meanwhile, in western Asia, an estimated 12.7 percent of the population—representing more than 39 million people—faced similar conditions over the same period.
Beyond absolute hunger, broader measures of food insecurity also showed slight improvement. The global population experiencing constraints on adequate food access for part of the year, categorized as "moderate or severe food insecurity," decreased to 28 percent in 2024. This translates to roughly 2.3 billion people, a minor reduction from 28.4 percent in 2023.
Public health officials emphasize that while certain indicators are moving in the right direction, long-term developmental impacts remain a profound concern, particularly for the youngest generations.
"In recent years, the world has made good progress in reducing stunting and supporting exclusive breastfeeding, but there is still much to be done to relieve millions of people from the burdens of food insecurity and malnutrition," said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Projections looking toward the end of the decade paint a sobering picture. Current trajectories estimate that 512 million people could experience chronic undernourishment by 2030, with nearly 60 percent of those individuals residing in Africa. Agency leaders note that this reality underscores the enormous difficulty of achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger.
The root causes of these persistent challenges are deeply intertwined with the global economic shocks of the early 2020s. The SOFI report closely examined the consequences of the severe food price surge spanning from 2021 to 2023. Food price inflation—driven by a combination of global policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic disruptions and fallout from Russia’s war on Ukraine, and extreme weather events disrupting agricultural yields worldwide—has severely hindered post-pandemic recovery in nutrition and food security.
Low-income nations have borne the heaviest burden of these compounding crises. While median global food price inflation increased from a manageable 2.3 percent in December 2020 to a peak of 13.6 percent in early 2023, the crisis was far more acute in economically vulnerable countries. In low-income nations, food price inflation climbed to a staggering 30 percent in May 2023.
These soaring costs have directly affected household purchasing power, making healthy diets unattainable for millions. Globally, the number of people unable to afford a healthy diet fell modestly to 2.6 billion last year, down from 2.76 billion in 2019. However, this global average masks severe localized regressions.
In low-income countries, the number of people who could not afford a healthy diet rose to 545 million last year, up significantly from 464 million five years earlier. In lower-middle-income nations excluding India, that figure increased from 791 million to 869 million over the same timeframe. In total, the data shows that in low-income countries, 544.7 million people—representing a striking 72 percent of the population—were unable to afford a healthy diet in 2024.
"In times of rising food prices and disrupted global value chains, we must step up our investments in rural and agricultural transformation," said IFAD President Alvaro Lario. "These investments are not only essential for ensuring food and nutrition security—they are also critical for global stability."
To counteract these trends, the report outlines a series of recommended policy interventions. These include transparent and credible monetary policies designed to contain inflationary pressures, alongside time-bound and targeted fiscal measures such as robust social protection programs to shield vulnerable households from sudden price shocks. Additionally, the report emphasizes the necessity of strategic investments in agrifood research and development, market information systems to boost resilience and productivity, and improvements to basic transportation and production infrastructure.
The human cost of these systemic failures is felt most acutely by children. UNICEF estimates that more than 190 million children under the age of 5 are affected by undernutrition, a condition with lifelong ramifications for physical and mental development that can rob individuals of their full potential.
"Every child deserves the chance to grow and thrive," said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. "We must work in collaboration with governments, the private sector and communities themselves to ensure that vulnerable families have access to food that is affordable and with adequate nutrition for children to develop. That includes strengthening social protection programs and teaching parents about locally produced nutritious food for children, including the importance of breastfeeding, which provides the best start to a baby’s life."
