Global hunger declined for a third consecutive year in 2025 showing that progress is possible, but gains remain fragile and far too slow to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the 2030 deadline.
The warning comes in the latest edition of The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report issued on Tuesday by five United Nations agencies.
Estimates show that 7.8 per cent of the global population, or roughly 645 million people, faced hunger in 2025.
This is down from 8.1 per cent in 2024 and 8.6 per cent in 2022, or nearly 14 million fewer people than in 2024 and 43 million fewer compared to 2022.
The SDGs call for stamping out hunger and malnutrition by the end of the decade, but progress remains uneven across regions.
Although Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean have recorded steady gains in recent years, Africa now hosts the largest number of people facing hunger – marking a first.
In 2025, some 309 million people on the continent did not get enough to eat, compared with 292 million in Asia.
Even though Africa’s hunger rate decreased from 20.3 per cent in 2024 to 20.0 per cent the following year, rapid population growth means it now has the highest number of hungry people in absolute terms.
Broader measures of food access show a similar divide. In 2025, roughly 2.1 billion people across the planet – slightly more than a quarter of the world’s population (25.8 per cent) – experienced moderate or severe food insecurity, meaning they were at times forced to compromise on the quality or quantity of food they ate.
Even though this represents an improvement from 2024 and 2020, it is still above pre-pandemic levels.
In Africa, more than half the population, 56.6 per cent, faced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2025, compared with 20.3 per cent in Asia, 22.9 per cent in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 8.7 per cent in Northern America and Europe.
Conflict, climate and rising costs
The annual SOFI report is 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).
They warn that conflict in the Middle East, along with weather extremes and reductions in both official development assistance and humanitarian funding threaten to undermine recent progress towards ending global hunger.
Máximo Torero, FAO Chief Economist said the crisis around the Strait of Hormuz will have an effect on food production, crop yields and 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,” he said.
The possible effects of weather extremes, including the El Niño climate pattern in 2026 and 2027, are not included in the projections and could further compound the situation.
Meanwhile, progress on nutrition targets remains insufficient. Indicators such as child stunting, wasting, overweight, low birthweight and exclusive breastfeeding show only marginal improvements, while anaemia among women aged 15 to 49 is worsening.
Adult obesity is also on the rise, increasing from 12.1 per cent in 2012 to 16.2 per cent in 2024. Furthermore, only 30.8 per cent of children aged 6 to 23 months worldwide consume a minimally diverse diet, and 150 million under-fives are still stunted.
Healthy foods still too expensive
The report also examines the cost of a healthy diet, which is defined as the minimum average cost of locally available foods that meet energy and most nutrient needs.
In 2025, the average global cost rose to 4.28 purchasing power parity dollars per person per day, up from 3.44 in 2021 and 2.94 in 2017.
Even so, the number of people who cannot afford a healthy diet fell from 2.97 billion in 2021 to 2.69 billion in 2025, but this trend hides deep regional inequality.
In Africa, 66.6 per cent of the population could not afford a healthy diet in 2025, more than double the levels in Asia and in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Yet lowering food prices alone will not be enough as “post-farmgate activities” – which include processing, logistics and wholesale – account for 70 to 75 per cent of what consumers pay at the register.
The report calls for context-specific investments in infrastructure, research and development, irrigation and cold chains, alongside reforms in subsidies, trade facilitation and regulatory systems.
“The work that lies ahead over the years to 2030 is immense,” the authors said. “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.”
