Global hunger experienced an overall decline last year, offering a glimmer of hope in the protracted post-pandemic economic recovery. However, this progress remains starkly uneven, with food insecurity continuing to rise sharply across most of Africa and western Asia. These sobering findings come from The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) 2025 report, a comprehensive joint publication released by five specialized United Nations agencies, including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
According to the new assessment, roughly 8.2 percent of the world’s population—representing approximately 673 million people—suffered from hunger in 2024. While this figure indicates a downward trend from 8.7 percent in 2022 and 8.5 percent in 2023, the sheer scale of the crisis underscores the immense challenges that remain on the path 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."
Between 638 and 720 million people faced chronic hunger last year, according to the report’s broader statistical modeling. This represents a reduction of approximately 15 million individuals compared to 2023 and 22 million fewer than in 2022.
Regional disparities, however, highlight a fracturing global landscape. In Asia, the number of undernourished people fell to 6.7 percent, improving significantly from 7.9 percent two years prior. The Caribbean and Latin America also reported encouraging progress, with the proportion of undernourished populations dropping to 5.1 percent—representing 34 million people—in 2024, down from a peak of 6.1 percent in 2020.
In sharp contrast, these positive trends are entirely eclipsed by a steady and alarming rise in hunger across Africa and western Asia, particularly in nations battered by prolonged food crises, conflict, and economic instability. 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—exceeding 39 million people—grappled with hunger over the same period.
Beyond severe hunger, broader measures of food security also reveal widespread vulnerability. Individuals experiencing constraints on adequate food access for even part of the year, classified as facing "moderate or severe food insecurity," decreased slightly to 28 percent in 2024. This translates to roughly 2.3 billion people globally, down marginally from 28.4 percent in 2023.
Public health officials emphasize that chronic food insecurity carries lifelong consequences, particularly for the youngest populations. "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," noted World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The financial barriers to basic nutrition remain one of the most stubborn obstacles in the global fight against malnutrition. The report indicates that in low-income countries, 544.7 million people—an astounding 72 percent of the population—were unable to afford a healthy diet in 2024.
Current projections paint a daunting picture for the future. Experts estimate that roughly 512 million people could still experience chronic undernourishment by 2030, with nearly 60 percent of those individuals located in Africa. Alongside the FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the UN World Food Programme (WFP), UNICEF, and the WHO warn that these figures expose the immense difficulty of achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger within the decade.
The roots of this ongoing crisis are closely tied to the global economic shocks of recent years. The SOFI report closely examined the causes and consequences of the historic food price surge that occurred between 2021 and 2023. Food price inflation—fueled by a compounding mix of pandemic-era policy responses, the impacts of Russia’s war on Ukraine, and increasingly severe extreme weather events across the globe—has severely hindered post-2020 recovery efforts in nutrition and food security.
Low-income nations have borne the heaviest burden of these escalating costs. While median global food price inflation rose from a modest 2.3 percent in December 2020 to 13.6 percent in early 2023, it skyrocketed in low-income countries, peaking at an astronomical 30 percent in May 2023.
Despite high global food prices, overall economic shifts have led to a slight decline in the total number of people worldwide who cannot afford a healthy diet, falling to 2.6 billion last year from 2.76 billion in 2019. However, this global average masks severe regional deterioration. In low-income countries, the population priced out of a healthy diet rose to 545 million last year, up from 464 million five years earlier. Similarly, in lower-middle-income nations excluding India, that figure increased from 791 million to 869 million over the same timeframe.
"In times of rising food prices and disrupted global value chains, we must step up our investments in rural and agricultural transformation," stressed IFAD President Alvaro Lario. "These investments are not only essential for ensuring food and nutrition security—they are also critical for global stability."
To reverse these trends, the UN report recommends a targeted suite of policy interventions. These include transparent and credible monetary policies designed to contain inflationary pressures; time-bound and targeted fiscal measures, such as social protection programs, to directly shield vulnerable households; and strategic investments in agrifood research and development, market information systems to boost resilience and productivity, and modernized transportation and production infrastructure.
The human cost of this ongoing global crisis is perhaps most visible in its impact on early childhood development. Millions of young lives are shaped by nutritional deficits that can permanently alter physical and cognitive potential.
"Every child deserves the chance to grow and thrive. Yet over 190 million children under the age of 5 are affected by undernutrition, which can have negative consequences for their physical and mental development," said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. "This robs them of the chance to live to their fullest potential."
Russell emphasized that collaborative action involving governments, the private sector, and local communities is vital to guarantee that vulnerable families can secure affordable, nutritious food for their children. Such initiatives must include fortifying existing social protection systems and educating parents on utilizing locally produced nutritious foods, alongside championing breastfeeding as the foundational step for infant health and development.
