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Global hunger declines again but progress remains uneven across regions

Nancy Thomas - qinilo.com July 22, 2026

Foto : Nancy Thomas - qinilo.com

Global hunger declines again but progress: Shows Improvement Yet Regional Disparities Persist The worldwide prevalence of hunger dropped for the third

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World Hunger Shows Improvement Yet Regional Disparities Persist

The worldwide prevalence of hunger dropped for the third straight year during 2025, demonstrating that advancement toward food security is achievable. Nevertheless, these improvements remain precarious and insufficiently rapid to meet the Sustainable Development Goals before their 2030 target date.

Five United Nations organizations delivered this assessment in their newest The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World publication, released on Tuesday. According to their calculations, approximately 645 million individuals—representing 7.8 percent of humanity—experienced inadequate food access last year.

That figure represents a decline from 8.1 percent recorded in 2024 and 8.6 percent measured in 2022. The reduction translates to roughly 14 million fewer hungry individuals compared to the previous year and 43 million fewer than the 2022 baseline.

Africa Emerges as the Region with Most Hungry People

While the SDGs aim to eliminate hunger and malnutrition by decade’s end, advancement varies considerably between different parts of the world. Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean have demonstrated consistent improvements over recent years. However, Africa has now surpassed all other regions in total numbers of people experiencing hunger—a historic first for the continent.

Last year, 309 million Africans lacked sufficient food, exceeding Asia’s count of 292 million. Despite Africa’s hunger rate falling from 20.3 percent in 2024 to 20.0 percent in 2025, the continent’s swift population expansion has pushed it to the top position in absolute terms.

Broader indicators of food access reveal comparable patterns. Approximately 2.1 billion individuals worldwide—slightly over one-quarter of the global population at 25.8 percent—encountered moderate or severe food insecurity in 2025. This condition indicates that people occasionally had to reduce either the quality or amount of food they consumed.

Although this represents progress from both 2024 and 2020 measurements, the figure remains higher than pre-pandemic levels. Regional breakdowns show Africa at 56.6 percent, Asia at 20.3 percent, Latin America and the Caribbean at 22.9 percent, and Northern America and Europe at 8.7 percent.

Emerging Threats Could Reverse Recent Gains

The annual SOFI report, jointly 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), identifies several dangers to continued progress.

Conflict throughout the Middle East, extreme weather events, and declining official development assistance alongside reduced humanitarian funding all threaten to weaken recent achievements in combating global hunger.

“Depending on the length of the impact of the crisis on food inflation, which is driven by higher energy and fertilizer prices, we simulate that between 510 and 520 million people may still be facing hunger in 2030,” said Máximo Torero, FAO Chief Economist, regarding the Strait of Hormuz situation.

The projections do not account for potential weather extremes, including the El Niño climate pattern expected in 2026 and 2027, which could worsen conditions further.

Nutrition Progress Falls Short of Targets

Advancement on nutrition objectives remains inadequate. Metrics including child stunting, wasting, overweight conditions, low birthweight, and exclusive breastfeeding demonstrate only slight improvements. Meanwhile, anemia rates among women aged 15 to 49 are deteriorating.

Adult obesity continues climbing as well, rising from 12.1 percent in 2012 to 16.2 percent in 2024. Additionally, merely 30.8 percent of children between 6 and 23 months worldwide receive a minimally diverse diet, while 150 million children under five remain stunted.

Healthy Diet Affordability Shows Deep Inequality

The report analyzes the expense of maintaining a nutritious diet, defined as the lowest average cost of locally available foods meeting energy and most nutritional requirements. Globally, this average climbed to 4.28 purchasing power parity dollars per person daily in 2025, compared to 3.44 dollars in 2021 and 2.94 dollars in 2017.

Despite rising costs, the number of people unable to afford healthy food decreased from 2.97 billion in 2021 to 2.69 billion in 2025. However, this overall improvement conceals substantial regional disparities.

In Africa, 66.6 percent of residents could not afford a healthy diet in 2025—more than twice the proportion found in Asia and in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Reducing food prices alone will prove insufficient, according to the report, because post-farmgate activities encompassing processing, logistics, and wholesale operations represent 70 to 75 percent of what consumers ultimately pay at checkout.

The publication recommends targeted investments in infrastructure, research and development, irrigation systems, and cold chains, combined with reforms to subsidies, trade facilitation mechanisms, and regulatory frameworks.

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