Slight decrease in global hunger as inequalities widen, UN report reveals

28 July 2025: An interagency group of UN organizations released the flagship 2025 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report, revealing a modest decline in global hunger since 2022.

According to the report, 8.2% of the world’s population experienced hunger in 2024, down from 8.5% in 2023 and 8.7% in 2022.

Significant progress was seen in Latin America and Asia, where undernourishment rates fell by 1% and 1.2%, respectively, between 2022 and 2024.

However, hunger remains alarmingly high in Africa and Western Asia, affecting 20% and 12.7% of the population. The report warns that, by 2030, nearly 512 million people could be chronically undernourished – almost 60% of them in Africa.

These findings, combined with the report’s review of global nutrition targets under the Sustainable Development Goals, underscore the difficulty of achieving the goal of zero hunger by 2030.

While food insecurity eased slightly from 2023 to 2024, 335 million more people were affected in 2024 than in 2019, and 683 million more than in 2015, when the 2030 Agenda was adopted.

The SOFI report is jointly produced by five UN agencies: the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, UNICEF, the World Food Programme, and the World Health Organization.

These agencies attribute persistently high hunger levels to a “perfect storm” of COVID-19’s economic fallout, the war in Ukraine, and climate-related shocks – factors that have hit low- and middle-income countries the hardest, pushing food inflation above already elevated global averages.

Although the global number of people able to afford a healthy diet rose between 2019 and 2024, it declined in low- and middle-income nations, where food prices surged most sharply.

To counter rising food costs, the report calls for targeted fiscal measures to shield the most vulnerable and transparent monetary policies to curb inflation, and strategic investments to strengthen agrifood systems.

For more details, visit UN News.