© Pudlowski In 2025, about 645 million people, or 7.8 percent of the world’s population, experienced hunger. Hunger is receding, but the goal is still far away: the UN warned of new threats to global food security Humanitarian assistance
The number of people suffering from hunger in the world has been declining for the third year in a row. However, this progress remains too slow and highly uneven, and armed conflicts, climate shocks and cuts in international aid could reverse it. This is the conclusion reached by the authors of the new UN report “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World” (SOFI 2026).
According to a study prepared by FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), UNICEF, the World Food Program (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO), about ~60>645 million people, or 7.8 percent of the population, experienced hunger in 2025 planets. This is almost 14 million less than a year earlier, and 43 million less than in 2022. However, the improvements are distributed extremely unevenly. The greatest progress has been made in Asia, where the number of hungry people has dropped to 292 million. Together with Latin America and the Caribbean, it is Asia that has become the main driver of global improvement. In Africa, despite a slight decrease in the proportion of the hungry population, due to the rapid growth of the population, the continent has taken first place in the absolute number of people suffering from malnutrition. Today there are about 309 million hungry people here.
The report’s authors emphasize that the problem goes far beyond chronic hunger. In 2025, approximately 2.1 billion people faced moderate to severe food insecurity, meaning they were forced to regularly reduce the amount of food they consumed or forgo better-quality foods.
FAO Director-General QU Dongyu believes that current progress should not reassure the global community: “The report shows that progress is possible, but we must move faster. Ending hunger and making healthy food accessible requires political will, sustained investment and effective public policy. Recent crises—from natural disasters such as the COVID-19 pandemic to human-caused disasters including armed conflicts, the war in Ukraine, the Gaza crisis and recent disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz—have demonstrated both the resilience of agri-food systems and the need to further strengthen them for the benefit of the most vulnerable people, farmers and consumers.” East. If it continues to drive up energy and fertilizer prices, the number of hungry people could reach 510–520 million by 2030, which is higher than forecasts made before the crisis began. However, the possible consequences of extreme weather events, including El Niño, are not yet included in these estimates.
The situation with the cost of healthy eating remains no less alarming. Last year, its average price rose to $4.28 at purchasing power parity per person per day. Although the number of people unable to afford a nutritious diet has dropped to 2.69 billion, this is still almost one in three people on the planet. The most difficult situation remains in Africa, where two thirds of the population cannot afford healthy food.
The President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, Alvaro Lario, emphasized that investment in modern food chains must be the key to solving the problem: “SOFI shows that the cost of healthy eating continues to rise and that almost 2.7 billion people still cannot afford a nutritious diet. Sustainable value chains must be a central part of the solution. Our challenge now is to turn the report’s findings into investments and do this through partnerships. Together we can create supply chains, market systems and rural economies that make healthy food accessible to all.”
Experts note that the lion’s share of the cost of products is formed after the crop leaves the field. Between 70 and 75 percent of the price paid by the buyer is spent on processing, transportation, storage and trading. Therefore, the development of infrastructure, cold chains and logistics can significantly reduce the cost of fresh and nutritious food.
The report’s authors also draw attention to the ongoing problems of child and maternal nutrition. About 150 million children under five suffer from stunting due to chronic malnutrition, while only 30.8 percent of children aged six to 23 months receive a sufficiently varied diet. At the same time, the prevalence of obesity among adults continues to rise worldwide, and the number of women suffering from anemia is increasing.
Acting Executive Director of the World Food Program Karl Skau recalled that behind the dry numbers of statistics lie the fate of millions of people: “Behind every number in this report is a family trying to cope with the rising cost of food. Conflict and climate shocks make healthy food even less accessible to them. We must continue to work with our partners, governments and communities to build food systems that can withstand crises so that families can afford nutritious food even in the most difficult times. Sustained investment that matches the scale of the challenge is now needed.”
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed that the solution to the problem has long been known.
“While we welcome the obvious progress in reducing hunger, healthy diets remain out of reach for one in three people on the planet. The prevalence of obesity is rising and progress in improving maternal and child nutrition is slowing, he said. “But we know what works: policies that make healthy food an easy choice.” According to the head of WHO, breastfeeding, taxes on junk food, and protecting children from annoying advertising help fight obesity
The authors of the report acknowledge that the world still has a very long way to go before achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goal of ending hunger by 2030. However, the current decline in the number of hungry people shows that with political will and international cooperation, it is still possible to change the situation.