Global Hunger Declines for Third Consecutive Year, Yet Progress Remains Fragile Amidst Regional Disparities and Emerging Crises, UN Report Reveals

Global hunger experienced a third consecutive year of decline in 2025, offering a glimmer of hope that sustained progress is attainable in the fight against food insecurity. However, this hard-won momentum remains precarious, unevenly distributed across the globe, and ultimately insufficient to achieve the ambitious Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of Zero Hunger by 2030. These sobering conclusions emerge from the latest edition of The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2026 (SOFI 2026) report, a comprehensive annual assessment jointly released by five specialized agencies of the United Nations on Tuesday.

The SOFI 2026 report estimates that 7.8 percent of the global population, or approximately 645 million people, faced hunger in 2025. This figure marks a notable reduction from 8.1 percent in 2024 and 8.6 percent in 2022, confirming a sustained, albeit gradual, improvement in the overall hunger landscape. The decrease represents nearly 14 million fewer people affected by hunger compared to 2024 and a more significant reduction of 43 million compared to 2022 levels. This downward trend, following a surge during the initial years of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent global shocks, indicates that concerted efforts can yield positive results, even if the pace is slower than desired.

Despite this global headway, the recovery narrative is far from uniform, with pronounced disparities persisting across regions. Asia, alongside Latin America and the Caribbean, has demonstrated consistent improvements in recent years, reflecting successful interventions and perhaps more resilient food systems in certain sub-regions. In stark contrast, Africa continues to bear the heaviest burden, now home to an estimated 309 million hungry people. This figure surpasses Asia’s total of 292 million, marking a critical shift where Africa, despite a stabilizing trend in the share of its population facing hunger (decreasing from 20.3 percent in 2024 to 20.0 percent in 2025), now accounts for the largest absolute number of hungry individuals globally. This grim reality is exacerbated by the continent’s rapidly growing population, which effectively dilutes percentage-based improvements and highlights the immense challenge of ensuring food security for its burgeoning populace.

Broader indicators of food access echo this complex picture. In 2025, an estimated 25.8 percent of the global population, translating to roughly 2.1 billion people, experienced moderate or severe food insecurity. This classification signifies that individuals were, at times, compelled to compromise on either the quality or quantity of the food they consumed due to financial or other constraints. While this represents a decline from 27.1 percent in 2024 and 28.7 percent in 2020, equating to nearly 86 million fewer people than in 2024 and 135 million fewer than in 2020, the current levels still remain stubbornly above those recorded prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, underscoring the long tail of recent global crises.

Regional disparities in food insecurity remain profoundly stark. More than half of Africa’s population (56.6 percent) grappled with moderate or severe food insecurity in 2025, a figure that dwarfs those in other major regions: 20.3 percent in Asia, 22.9 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean, and a comparatively low 8.7 percent in Northern America and Europe. The report also highlights that food insecurity continues to be more prevalent in rural areas, where livelihoods are often directly tied to agriculture and thus more vulnerable to climate shocks and market fluctuations, than in peri-urban and urban settings. Furthermore, women remain disproportionately affected by food insecurity, though the report notes a slight narrowing of the gender gap in 2025, indicating potential, albeit slow, progress in addressing systemic inequalities.

The Shadow of Conflict and Climate: Updated Hunger Projections

A critical new element of this year’s SOFI report is its updated hunger projections for the next five years, meticulously factoring in the unfolding conflict in the Middle East. The analysis reveals a concerning trajectory, indicating that depending on the duration and intensity of the crisis’s impact on food inflation – primarily driven by soaring energy and fertilizer prices – between 510 and 520 million people may still be facing hunger in 2030. This revised projection stands notably higher than the pre-conflict scenario’s more optimistic estimate of 503 million, effectively erasing some of the projected gains and underscoring the fragility of global food systems in the face of geopolitical instability. While the global number of undernourished people is still expected to decrease by 20 percent overall, this potential increase in the baseline for 2030 is a stark warning.

Crucially, these projections do not account for other potential disruptors that could further compound the crisis, such as the severe effects of weather extremes, including a strong El Niño event anticipated in 2026 and 2027. Such climatic phenomena typically bring devastating droughts or floods to various parts of the world, directly impacting agricultural output and exacerbating food shortages. 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) – collectively warn that the 2026 Middle East conflict, combined with these weather extremes and significant reductions in official development assistance (ODA) and humanitarian funding, pose a severe threat to unraveling the hard-won progress made towards ending global hunger. This confluence of crises paints a grim picture for the remaining years leading up to the 2030 SDG deadline.

Stalled Progress on Global Nutrition Targets

Beyond hunger, the SOFI 2026 report also shines a spotlight on global nutrition, revealing that progress on maternal and child nutrition remains woefully insufficient to meet international commitments, including the critical 2030 nutrition targets. Key indicators of child health, such as stunting (low height for age), wasting (low weight for height), overweight, low birthweight, and exclusive breastfeeding rates, show only marginal improvements. The pace of change is simply too slow to meet the established targets, suggesting a systemic failure to adequately protect the most vulnerable populations.

Alarmingly, some nutrition indicators are moving in the wrong direction. Anaemia among women aged 15 to 49 years is worsening, posing significant health risks to mothers and their children. Simultaneously, the prevalence of adult obesity continues its steady and concerning rise, increasing from 12.1 percent in 2012 to 16.2 percent in 2024. This trend runs directly counter to the target of halting the rise in obesity by 2025, indicating a global health crisis that intersects with food systems. Furthermore, only 30.8 percent of children aged 6 to 23 months worldwide consume a minimally diverse diet, severely impacting their development, and a staggering 150 million children under five years of age are still stunted, locking them into a cycle of poor health and reduced cognitive potential.

Regional variations again highlight the uneven nature of progress. While the prevalence of child stunting is declining in Africa and is on track to meet the 2030 target in Asia, and exclusive breastfeeding rates are improving across all regions where data is available, these isolated successes are overshadowed by broader challenges. Nearly all regions are experiencing widening gaps in addressing anaemia among women, and child overweight is increasing rapidly in Oceania, signaling the need for context-specific and urgent interventions.

The Exorbitant Cost of a Healthy Diet

This year’s SOFI report delves deeper into a critical barrier to food security and nutrition: the cost of a healthy diet. Defined by FAO and WHO as a diet that is adequate, balanced, diverse, and moderate, the report underscores that the financial burden remains a major constraint to achieving SDG 2 (Zero Hunger). While lowering these costs is crucial, the report cautions that it alone will not be sufficient to fundamentally improve dietary quality and nutrition outcomes, emphasizing the need for a multi-faceted approach.

In 2025, the average global cost of a healthy diet rose to 4.28 purchasing power parity (PPP) dollars per person per day, a significant increase from 3.44 PPP dollars in 2021 and 2.94 PPP dollars in 2017. Latin America and the Caribbean recorded the highest regional levels at 4.91 PPP dollars. Encouragingly, the number of people unable to afford a healthy diet has seen a reduction, falling from 2.97 billion (37.4 percent of the global population) in 2021 to 2.69 billion (32.7 percent) in 2025. However, this positive global trend masks profound regional disparities. In Africa, the affordability crisis worsened markedly, with a staggering 66.6 percent 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. This indicates a deepening challenge for the continent’s most vulnerable households.

The report meticulously analyzes why healthy diet costs vary so widely across regions, attributing these differences to structural variations in agrifood systems. Animal source foods, fruits, and vegetables consistently account for the largest share of these costs, reflecting their higher production and distribution expenses, while starchy staples contribute relatively little. Interestingly, 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, highlighting diverse dietary patterns and market dynamics.

Food value chains are identified as a major determinant of prices, with post-farmgate activities accounting for a substantial 70 to 75 percent of what consumers ultimately pay. Within this, up to 40 percent of total costs arise from processing, logistics, and wholesale operations. Therefore, improving efficiency within these segments is deemed critical, particularly for reducing the cost of perishable, nutrient-rich foods that are often most expensive and prone to spoilage. The report advocates for context-specific policy responses to reduce the cost of a healthy diet, including strategic investments in infrastructure, research and development, irrigation, and cold chains. These must be coupled with reforms in subsidies, trade facilitation, and regulatory frameworks to create an enabling environment for affordable, nutritious food. Targeted interventions that boost productivity, reduce food losses, and promote sustainable practices are presented as pathways to simultaneously improve nutrition outcomes, strengthen resilience against shocks, and support broader climate goals. The report powerfully concludes, “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.”

A Unified Call to Action from UN Leadership

The release of the SOFI 2026 report was accompanied by urgent calls to action from the heads of the five collaborating UN agencies, each underscoring the report’s findings and the path forward.

QU Dongyu, Director-General of the FAO, acknowledged the progress but emphasized the need for greater urgency: “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.” His statement highlighted the interconnectedness of global events and food security, urging robust systems capable of withstanding diverse shocks.

IFAD President, Alvaro Lario, focused on the economic dimensions: “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.” Lario’s remarks underscored the necessity of robust economic frameworks and collaborative investment to tackle affordability.

Catherine Russell, UNICEF Executive Director, brought attention to the impact on children: “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.” Russell’s intervention stressed a holistic approach, linking food security to broader social services for child welfare.

Carl Skau, Acting Executive Director of WFP, humanized the statistics: “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.” Skau’s message emphasized the urgent human element and the need for scalable, crisis-resistant solutions.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, highlighted the dual burden of malnutrition: "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." Dr. Tedros articulated a clear policy agenda for promoting healthy diets and tackling the rising tide of obesity alongside hunger.

Broader Implications and the Path to 2030

The SOFI 2026 report serves as a critical annual barometer for global progress towards SDG 2, revealing a landscape of cautious optimism tempered by profound challenges. While the consistent decline in global hunger for a third year signals the potential of coordinated efforts and resilient food systems, the uneven distribution of these gains, particularly the escalating absolute numbers in Africa, underscores persistent structural inequalities and vulnerabilities. The updated projections, incorporating geopolitical conflicts like the Middle East crisis, starkly illustrate how external shocks can swiftly derail hard-won progress, pushing millions back into the throes of hunger and insecurity.

The report’s detailed analysis of the rising cost of healthy diets and the stalled progress on crucial nutrition targets further complicates the path to 2030. It is not merely about providing enough calories, but ensuring access to diverse, nutrient-rich foods that support optimal health and development across all age groups. The burden of malnutrition, manifesting as child stunting, maternal anaemia, and rising adult obesity, represents a significant drain on human potential and economic development, perpetuating cycles of poverty and ill-health.

Achieving Zero Hunger by 2030 will require an unprecedented level of political will, sustained financial investment, and integrated, multi-sectoral approaches. This includes strengthening agricultural productivity, particularly for nutritious foods, enhancing the efficiency and resilience of food value chains, investing in robust social protection systems, and proactively addressing the root causes of conflict and climate change. The interconnectedness of these issues demands a holistic global response, ensuring that food systems are not only productive but also equitable, sustainable, and capable of providing healthy diets for all, even in the face of escalating global complexities. The vision of a world where healthy food is within everyone’s reach remains a formidable but essential goal, demanding immediate and concerted action.