Global Hunger Declines Across Continents, But UN Warns Climate and Trade Disruptions Threaten Gains

Global hunger fell for a third consecutive year in 2025, with improvements recorded across every continent, though a United Nations report released on Tuesday, 21 July 2026, warned that climate shocks and trade disruptions could reverse the progress.

According to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report, 7.8 percent of the global population experienced hunger last year, down from 8.1 percent in 2024. The report, launched in Rome, was jointly produced by five UN agencies: the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP), and the World Health Organization (WHO).

The improvement was driven largely by gains in Asia, particularly India, as well as Latin America and the Caribbean. According to the report, a long-running upward trend in Africa’s hunger rate also showed signs of slowing.

“The big difference to previous years is that this year the rate of hunger has declined in all continents, including Africa, although very, very slightly,” Maximo Torero, Chief Economist at the FAO, said.

Despite the improvement in rates, Africa recorded the highest number of hungry people of any continent for the first time, at about 309 million, surpassing Asia’s 292 million. Torero attributed this to population growth on the continent rather than a worsening hunger rate, noting that the proportion of Africans going hungry had begun to fall.

The report also found that 2.69 billion people worldwide, or roughly one in three, cannot afford a healthy diet. The average cost of a healthy diet stood at 4.28 purchasing power parity (PPP) dollars a day, according to the report, well above the World Bank’s extreme poverty line of three PPP dollars. In Africa, 66.6 percent of the population could not afford a healthy diet in 2025, more than double the rate in Asia or Latin America and the Caribbean.

Torero said government subsidies have typically favoured cereals and starchy staples over fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy. “That means calories, but not a diversity of diet,” he said, pointing to rising rates of obesity and diet-related disease. Figures from the WHO cited in the report show adult obesity rose to 16.2 percent in 2024, up from 12.1 percent in 2012.

The report called for greater investment in infrastructure and research and development to reduce the cost of nutritious foods, along with policies to encourage fruit and vegetable consumption.

Looking ahead, Torero cautioned that shipping disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, linked to conflict in the Middle East, are likely to affect next year’s figures. He also pointed to a significant reduction in overseas development assistance to Africa as a concern for future progress. Disruptions to the route, a key corridor for fuel and fertiliser shipments, have already driven up production costs for farmers worldwide this year.

Efforts to reach the FAO for additional comment beyond the report launch were not immediately available as of press time.

The report set a target of ending global hunger by 2030, a goal the agencies said would require “immense” further effort given the scale of unaffordability still facing much of the world’s population.