Africa-Press. Global hunger rates have declined for the third consecutive year in 2025, but this slow and fragile progress has not included Africa, which now has the highest number of hungry people in the world. This is the conclusion of the “State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2026” report released on Tuesday by five specialized agencies of the United Nations: the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, UNICEF, the World Food Programme, and the World Health Organization.
The report estimates that 7.8% of the world’s population suffered from hunger in 2025, down from 8.1% in 2024 and 8.6% in 2022, equating to approximately 645 million people, a decrease of nearly 14 million compared to 2024 and 43 million compared to 2022, according to a statement from the Food and Agriculture Organization.
The Most Affected Continent
Despite this global improvement, recovery remains uneven across regions. While Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean have shown steady improvement, Africa now has about 309 million hungry people compared to 292 million in Asia. The report indicates that the percentage of Africa’s population facing hunger has slightly decreased from 20.3% in 2024 to 20.0% in 2025, yet the continent has become the global leader in absolute numbers of hungry individuals amid rapid population growth.
On a broader scale of food availability, approximately 2.1 billion people (25.8% of the global population) experienced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2025, meaning they sometimes had to compromise on the quality or quantity of their food. This is a decrease from 27.1% in 2024 and 28.7% in 2020, but it remains higher than pre-COVID-19 levels.
Regional disparities are stark here as well, with more than half of Africa’s population (56.6%) facing moderate or severe food insecurity in 2025, compared to 20.3% in Asia, 22.9% in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 8.7% in North America and Europe, according to the report.
Cost of Healthy Food
This year’s report dedicates more space to the cost of a healthy diet, defined as the minimum expenditure needed to obtain locally available foods that meet energy and nutrient needs. The global average cost of this diet rose to $4.28 in purchasing power parity per person per day in 2025, up from $3.44 in 2021 and $2.94 in 2017.
However, the number of people unable to afford a healthy diet decreased from 2.97 billion (37.4% of the global population) in 2021 to 2.69 billion (32.7%) in 2025, which is nearly one in three people. The report notes that this trend conceals significant regional disparities, as in Africa, 66.6% of the population could not afford healthy food in 2025, more than double the levels recorded in Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean.
Stalled Nutrition and Grim Outlook
The report warns that progress in maternal and child nutrition remains insufficient to meet international targets for 2030, with 150 million children under five suffering from stunting, while anemia among women aged 15 to 49 is worsening, and obesity rates among adults have risen from 12.1% in 2012 to 16.2% in 2024.
The report estimates that around 510 to 520 million people will continue to face hunger by 2030 due to the impacts of conflict in the Middle East on food price inflation, compared to a lower estimate of 503 million in a pre-conflict scenario.
The five agencies involved in preparing the report emphasize that the conflict in the Middle East in 2026, along with extreme climate events, cuts in official development assistance, and humanitarian funding, threatens to undermine the gains made in combating hunger.
The Director-General of the World Health Organization commented on the report, stating, “While we welcome the clear progress we have made in reducing hunger, healthy food remains out of reach for one in three people worldwide.”
