Three years of falling hunger is not a small thing. The 2026 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, produced by five UN agencies, puts the number of people facing hunger in 2025 at about 645 million — 7.8 per cent of the world. That is nearly 14 million fewer than in 2024 and 43 million fewer than the 2022 peak, when the share was 8.6 per cent.
Broader food insecurity improved too. About 2.1 billion people, 25.8 per cent of the world, experienced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2025, down from 27.1 per cent in 2024 and 28.7 per cent in 2020 — 86 million fewer than a year earlier, though still above pre-pandemic levels. The largest gains were in South America and Southern Asia.
Progress on an uneven map
Africa is where the story is most delicate. Hunger prevalence there fell from 20.3 per cent to 20.0 per cent, the first interruption of an upward trend since 2017 — a turning point, but a small one. Because the population is growing fast, the absolute number of undernourished people in Africa is about 309 million, now higher than Asia's 292 million. More than half of Africa's population, 56.6 per cent, faced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2025, against 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.
The projections are sobering. Under current conditions, roughly 510 to 520 million people could still face hunger in 2030, well off the zero-hunger target. The report notes that this does not factor in a strong El Niño in 2026 or 2027, or recent cuts to development and humanitarian financing, so it may err on the hopeful side.
The expensive part is not the farm
The most interesting chapter concerns the cost of a healthy diet — the cheapest combination of locally available foods meeting energy and most nutrient requirements. In 2025 that cost an average of 4.28 international dollars per person per day, up from 3.44 in 2021 and 2.94 in 2017. Latin America and the Caribbean is highest at 4.91.
Here is the apparent paradox: the average cost rose, but the number of people unable to afford a healthy diet fell, from 2.97 billion (37.4 per cent) in 2021 to 2.69 billion (32.7 per cent) in 2025. Both can be true because the cost figure is an average basket price while affordability depends on incomes and their distribution. A country can get richer faster than its food gets dearer.
The distribution is still brutal. In Africa, 66.6 per cent of people could not afford a healthy diet in 2025 — more than double the share in Asia or Latin America.
Why does nutritious food cost so much? Because of what happens after the farm. Post-farmgate activities account for 70 to 75 per cent of what consumers pay, with up to 40 per cent of total costs arising in processing, logistics and wholesale. Animal-source foods, fruit and vegetables dominate the cost of a healthy diet; starchy staples contribute relatively little. That is the crux: cheap calories are cheap because they are easy to move and store, and expensive nutrients are expensive because they spoil. Weak infrastructure, poor cold chains and unreliable energy are not background conditions. They are the price.
The other half of the picture
Hunger is only one measure, and it is falling while others are not. Adult obesity rose from 12.1 per cent in 2012 to 16.2 per cent in 2024, against a target of halting the rise by 2025. About 150 million children under five are stunted. Only 30.8 per cent of children aged 6 to 23 months get a minimally diverse diet. Anaemia among women aged 15 to 49 is worsening in nearly every region.
The report's own summary is fair: a world where a healthy diet is no longer out of reach for nearly one in three people is a world worth building. The awkward finding underneath is that this is now less a problem of growing food than of moving it, storing it and paying for the parts in between — precisely the part development budgets have been slowest to fund.