Rome : Global hunger declined for a third consecutive year in 2025, demonstrating that progress is possible, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) said in a report.
However, the improvements remain fragile, unevenly distributed and insufficient to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, according to The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2026 (SOFI 2026) report, released on Tuesday by five United Nations specialised agencies.
The report estimates that 7.8% of the global population faces hunger in 2025, down from 8.1% in 2024 and 8.6% in 2022, confirming a sustained, albeit slow, improvement, Qu Dongyu, FAO Director-General said.
He added that this means that around 645 million people were affected by hunger in 2025, representing a reduction of nearly 14 million compared to 2024 and 43 million compared to 2022.
The UN agency’s report revealed the situation in Africa is the most critical, with approximately 20% of its population suffering from chronic undernourishment.
In 2025, an estimated 25.8% of the global population (around 2.1 billion people) experienced moderate or severe food insecurity, meaning they were at times forced to compromise on the quality or quantity of the food they ate.
As a result of malnutrition, approximately 150 million children under the age of five suffer from stunting, compared to 180 million in 2012.
