Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
The number of hungry people in the world is decreasing.
According to the latest United Nations State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World According to the report, about 645 million people faced hunger in 2025, 14 million fewer in 2024 and 43 million fewer in 2022.
Yet hundreds of millions continue to face severe food hunger as a result of conflict, economic instability and climate change.
Change slowly
According to a report published on Tuesday, about 7.8 percent of the world’s population will face hunger in 2025, down from 8.1 percent in 2024 and 8.6 percent in 2022.
The decline is the third year in a row of changes in hunger after the COVID-19 pandemic. But hunger is still higher than it was in 2019 before the epidemic.
Where do the most hungry people live?
Africa is still a hungry place in the world.
In 2025, an estimated 309 million people in Africa did not have enough food – equivalent to one in five people on the continent and representing almost half of the world’s hungry people.
In comparison, 292 million people in Asia (6 percent of the population) and 32 million in Latin America and the Caribbean (4.8 percent) were undernourished.
According to the report, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean have made slow progress in reducing both the proportion and number of people experiencing hunger in recent years.
In Africa, the long-term rise in hunger appears to have slowed. The prevalence of hunger decreased slightly from 20.3 percent in 2024 to 20 percent in 2025 although population growth means that the number of hungry people continues.
Looking ahead, the United Nations expects that the number of poor people in the world will decrease by about 20 percent by the year 2030 compared to the current situation.
Despite this, 510 million to 520 million people are still expected to face hunger by the end of the decade and 56 percent of them live in Africa.
The report also warned that recent crises, including a 2026 US-Israeli war over Iran, could derail progress, particularly in Africa and Asia.
Who can’t afford healthy food?
According to the report, the number of people who did not have access to nutritious food decreased from 2.97 billion in 2021 (37.4 percent of the world’s population) to 2.69 billion in 2025 (32.7 percent).
The decline indicated that, on average, incomes for food rose faster than the cost of nutritious food.
However, the cost of healthy eating continues to rise. The global cost of nutritious food reached $4.28 per day, using purchasing power, in 2025, from $3.44 in 2021 and $2.94 in 2017.
Despite global reforms, inflation remains a major problem in Africa and Asia. While Asia has the highest number of people who do not have access to nutritious food at 1.4 billion, or 29 percent of its population, Africa faces the highest number of 1.03 billion people, or almost two-thirds of the population, who do not have access to nutritious food.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, about 172 million people are affected (26 percent of the population), compared to 77.5 million in Europe and North America (7 percent of the population) and 2.3 million in Oceania (5 percent of the population). These statistics show persistent inequities in access to nutritious food across communities.
Compared to 2021, the share of people who cannot afford nutritious food increased in Africa while it decreased in Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Northern America and Europe.
What is a good food basket?
According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Bank, the nutritious food basket is the most affordable source of locally available food that meets people’s daily energy needs and the nutrients essential for a balanced diet.
It is made up of 11 foods from six food groups, which provide about 2,330 kilocalories per person per day and keep the right foods to have enough nutrients.
How many people are facing the problem of hunger?
Although world hunger has declined in recent years, millions of people in the Global South continue to face severe hunger as a result of conflict, economic instability and climate change.
Another report published by FAO and the World Food Programme, the Global Report on Food Crises 2026, states that approximately 1.4 million people worldwide are facing severe hunger, the most severe part of the five IPC/CH Food Security classification.
IPC/CH is the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification/Cadre Harmonise, an international system that ranks the risk of food insecurity from Phase 1 (low) to Phase 5 (disaster/famine).
A severe famine occurs when families lose all means of livelihood and face severe shortages of food and basic necessities. During this time, starvation, malnutrition, malnutrition and death are widespread, requiring immediate action to stop life from ending.
Gaza has the highest number of people facing severe hunger with approximately 640,700 people, representing 32 percent of its population. This problem has been exacerbated by the effects of Israel’s terrorist war on the enclave and restrictions on access and distribution of humanitarian aid by the Israeli army.
“Although the markets are more crowded than last year, many families cannot afford to buy enough food due to the lack of income and economic problems,” says Maram Humaid, an Al Jazeera reporter who reports from Gaza.
“The closure of many local soup kitchens has exacerbated the situation, removing vital support for thousands of people who rely on free meals.”
Sudan is closely followed by Gaza where 637,200 people are suffering from severe hunger despite being only one percent of the country’s population. Other countries reporting people in this violent group include South Sudan (83,500 people), Yemen (41,200), Haiti (8,400) and Mali (2,600).
