Global Hunger Falls for Third Straight Year, But Zero Hunger Goal Still Remains Out of Reach

Global Hunger Declined in 2025 but Zero Hunger Goal Remains Distant: SOFI 2026 Report

Progress Against Hunger Is Real, Yet Deep Regional Inequalities Continue to Threaten Global Food Security 

For the third consecutive year, the world has witnessed a decline in global hunger, offering a rare piece of encouraging news at a time when conflict, climate change and economic uncertainty dominate international headlines. According to The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2026 (SOFI 2026), hunger has continued to fall since its pandemic-era peak. This demonstrates that coordinated global efforts, better agricultural systems and economic recovery can produce tangible results.

However, the report also delivers a powerful warning. While the overall numbers are moving in the right direction, the pace of progress remains far too slow to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 2 (Zero Hunger) by 2030. More importantly, the benefits of this recovery are not being shared equally. Some regions have made significant gains, while others continue to struggle with worsening food insecurity, rising nutrition challenges and growing economic inequalities.

The report reminds policymakers that reducing hunger is not simply about producing more food. It is about ensuring that nutritious food is affordable, accessible and available to everyone, regardless of geography, income or social status.

In 2025, around 7.8 percent of the world's population experienced hunger, down from 8.1 percent in 2024 and 8.6 percent in 2022. This means approximately 645 million people remained undernourished during the year. Compared to 2024, nearly 14 million fewer people faced hunger, while the reduction since 2022 stands at 43 million.

These figures represent genuine progress, but they also underline the enormous scale of the challenge that still remains. Even after three years of improvement, hundreds of millions of people continue to live without enough food to meet basic nutritional needs.

The regional picture is even more revealing.

Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean have shown consistent improvements over recent years. Better economic recovery, improved agricultural production and stronger food distribution systems have contributed to declining hunger levels across these regions.

Africa, however, continues to face a much more difficult reality.

The continent is now home to approximately 309 million hungry people, compared to 292 million in Asia. Although the percentage of Africa's population experiencing hunger declined slightly from 20.3 percent in 2024 to 20.0 percent in 2025, rapid population growth means that the absolute number of people suffering from hunger remains the highest in the world.

This illustrates an important lesson. Even when percentage-based indicators improve, population dynamics can still increase the total number of people needing assistance.

The challenge becomes even clearer when broader food insecurity is examined.

Affordable Nutrition, Not Just Food Availability, Will Decide Whether the World Meets the 2030 Goal

Hunger represents only the most severe form of food deprivation. Millions of additional people regularly compromise on the quality or quantity of food because they cannot consistently afford nutritious meals.

The SOFI 2026 report estimates that 25.8 percent of the global population, or approximately 2.1 billion people, experienced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2025. This is an improvement from 27.1 percent in 2024 and 28.7 percent in 2020, representing nearly 86 million fewer people than the previous year and 135 million fewer than during the pandemic period.

Nevertheless, food insecurity remains substantially higher than pre-pandemic levels.

Again, regional disparities dominate the picture.

More than 56.6 percent of Africa's population experienced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2025. By comparison, the corresponding figures stood at 20.3 percent in Asia, 22.9 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean, and only 8.7 percent in Northern America and Europe.

The report also notes that food insecurity continues to affect rural communities more severely than urban populations. Women remain disproportionately affected, although the gender gap narrowed slightly during 2025.

Looking ahead, the outlook remains uncertain.

The report presents updated projections after incorporating the effects of the conflict in the Middle East. Depending on how long higher energy and fertilizer prices continue to fuel food inflation, between 510 million and 520 million people could still face hunger by 2030, compared with a lower projection of 503 million before the conflict.

Although this would represent roughly a 20 percent reduction in undernourishment, the numbers remain far above the level needed to achieve Zero Hunger.

Even these projections may prove optimistic.

The estimates do not fully account for future weather shocks, including the possible effects of El Niño during 2026 and 2027, which could further disrupt agricultural production, increase food prices and worsen food insecurity in vulnerable countries.

The report's authors—including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), UNICEF, World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO)—warn that conflict, climate-related disasters and declining international development assistance could reverse many of the gains achieved so far.

Nutrition outcomes also remain deeply concerning.

Global progress in reducing child stunting, wasting, overweight and low birthweight has been slow, while improvements in exclusive breastfeeding remain insufficient to meet international targets.

Only 30.8 percent of children aged between six and twenty-three months receive a minimally diverse diet. Meanwhile, 150 million children under five continue to suffer from stunting.

Equally worrying is the rise in adult obesity.

The prevalence of obesity increased steadily from 12.1 percent in 2012 to 16.2 percent in 2024, despite the global target of halting its growth by 2025.

Anaemia among women aged 15 to 49 years is also worsening across nearly every region, exposing another dimension of nutritional inequality that often receives less public attention.

The report therefore reinforces an important reality: solving hunger alone does not automatically solve malnutrition. Access to sufficient calories must be accompanied by access to nutritious, balanced diets.

This year's report places particular emphasis on the cost of healthy diets.

In 2025, the average global cost of a healthy diet reached 4.28 purchasing power parity (PPP) dollars per person per day, compared with 3.44 PPP dollars in 2021 and 2.94 PPP dollars in 2017. Latin America and the Caribbean recorded the highest average cost at 4.91 PPP dollars.

Encouragingly, the number of people unable to afford a healthy diet declined from 2.97 billion (37.4 percent of the global population) in 2021 to 2.69 billion (32.7 percent) in 2025.

Yet this global average conceals major regional inequalities.

In Africa, affordability deteriorated significantly. Around 66.6 percent of the population could not afford a healthy diet in 2025—more than twice the levels observed in Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean.

The report explains that these differences reflect structural characteristics of agrifood systems. Animal-source foods, fruits and vegetables account for the largest share of healthy diet costs. In Africa, animal-source foods contribute the most to dietary expenses, while vegetables dominate food costs in Latin America and the Caribbean. Importantly, much of the final price consumers pay is generated after agricultural production.

According to the report, 70 to 75 percent of consumer food prices originate from post-farmgate activities such as food processing, transportation, logistics, storage and wholesale distribution. Nearly 40 percent of total costs arise specifically from processing, logistics and wholesale operations. This finding highlights where policy reforms can make the greatest difference.

Improving roads, cold-chain infrastructure, irrigation systems, food storage facilities and transport networks can significantly reduce food costs, particularly for highly nutritious but perishable products.

Similarly, investments in agricultural research, climate-resilient farming, modern technology, efficient supply chains and regulatory reforms can strengthen food systems while supporting environmental sustainability.

Targeted support that boosts farm productivity, minimizes post-harvest losses and encourages sustainable agricultural practices offers multiple benefits. Such measures improve food availability, lower prices, strengthen resilience against future shocks and contribute to climate objectives simultaneously.

The report ultimately sends a balanced message.

The world has demonstrated that progress against hunger is achievable. Three consecutive years of declining hunger prove that determined policy action can produce measurable improvements.

Yet progress remains fragile.

Conflicts continue to disrupt food supplies. Climate change threatens harvests across vulnerable regions. Inflation makes healthy diets increasingly expensive. Reductions in humanitarian assistance create additional risks for countries already facing severe food insecurity.

Above all, the world cannot measure success solely by declining hunger statistics. The real objective is to ensure that every person—not just enough people—has access to safe, affordable and nutritious food.

The vision of Zero Hunger requires more than emergency food assistance. It demands resilient agricultural systems, inclusive economic growth, better rural infrastructure, efficient food value chains, improved maternal and child nutrition, stronger public health policies and sustained international cooperation.

The SOFI 2026 report offers both hope and urgency. Hope, because meaningful progress is possible. Urgency, because time is rapidly running out.

With only a few years remaining until 2030, governments, international organizations and development partners must transform encouraging trends into lasting structural change. Ending hunger is no longer simply a humanitarian aspiration—it is an economic necessity, a public health priority and a prerequisite for sustainable global development.

The world has already shown that hunger can be reduced. The challenge now is ensuring that no region, no country and no community is left behind.

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