The global fight against hunger, while showing signs of progress, remains a precarious endeavor, with fragile gains threatened by persistent inequalities and escalating crises, according to the latest comprehensive report released by five United Nations specialized agencies. "The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2026" (SOFI 2026) paints a nuanced picture: while hunger has declined for a third consecutive year, the improvements are too slow and unevenly distributed to meet the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the 2030 deadline. The report, a critical annual assessment, highlights that the world is at a crossroads, where concerted action is urgently needed to avert a reversal of hard-won progress and ensure food security and nutrition for all.
A Slow but Steady Decline in Hunger, Yet Far from Eradication
In 2025, an estimated 7.8 percent of the global population, approximately 645 million people, faced hunger. This marks a reduction from 8.1 percent in 2024 and 8.6 percent in 2022, indicating a sustained, albeit gradual, improvement. This downward trend represents a significant achievement, translating to nearly 14 million fewer hungry individuals compared to the previous year and a substantial 43 million fewer since 2022. This progress underscores the possibility of eradicating hunger, a core tenet of SDG 2, "Zero Hunger."
However, the report cautions against complacency. The improvements are characterized as "fragile" and "unevenly distributed," meaning that significant disparities persist across regions, populations, and demographics. The global average masks the stark realities faced by millions, and the trajectory towards the 2030 target remains alarmingly off-course.
Africa Faces Starkest Challenges Amidst Regional Disparities
The unevenness of progress is most pronounced when examining regional trends. Asia, alongside Latin America and the Caribbean, has demonstrated steady improvements in food security over recent years. In stark contrast, Africa bears the brunt of global hunger, now home to an estimated 309 million hungry people, surpassing Asia’s 292 million. While the previously rising trend of hunger in Africa has shown signs of stabilization, with the proportion of its population facing hunger dipping slightly from 20.3 percent in 2024 to 20.0 percent in 2025, the continent now holds the grim distinction of having the highest absolute number of hungry individuals. This is exacerbated by a rapidly growing population, placing immense pressure on already strained food systems.
The report details that over half of Africa’s population, a staggering 56.6 percent, experienced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2025. This contrasts sharply with Asia (20.3 percent), Latin America and the Caribbean (22.9 percent), and Northern America and Europe (8.7 percent). Food insecurity also continues to disproportionately affect rural areas compared to peri-urban and urban settings. Furthermore, women remain at a higher risk of food insecurity, although the gender gap showed a slight narrowing in 2025.
Moderate Food Insecurity Remains a Widespread Concern
Beyond outright hunger, the SOFI 2026 report sheds light on broader measures of food access. In 2025, an estimated 25.8 percent of the global population, translating to approximately 2.1 billion people, faced moderate or severe food insecurity. This signifies that these individuals were at times forced to compromise on the quality or quantity of food they consumed, impacting their health and well-being. While this figure represents a reduction from 27.1 percent in 2024 and 28.7 percent in 2020, indicating nearly 86 million fewer people affected compared to last year and 135 million fewer than in 2020, it still remains above pre-pandemic levels. This persistent level of moderate food insecurity suggests that many households are still struggling to access adequate and nutritious food consistently.
The Shadow of Middle East Conflict and Future Projections
Adding a layer of urgency and complexity to the global food security landscape, the SOFI 2026 report includes updated hunger projections in the context of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. The ramifications of this crisis, particularly its impact on food inflation driven by higher energy and fertilizer prices, could significantly alter the projected decline in global hunger. Depending on the duration and severity of the conflict’s influence, the report estimates that between 510 to 520 million people may still be facing hunger in 2030. This is a notable upward revision from a pre-conflict projection of 503 million, underscoring how geopolitical instability can derail development progress.
Furthermore, these projections do not account for other potential disruptors, such as the anticipated effects of weather extremes like El Niño in 2026 and 2027. Such events, coupled with the ongoing conflict and potential reductions in official development assistance and humanitarian funding, pose a significant threat to undermining the progress made towards ending global hunger. The report’s joint authors – the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN World Food Programme (WFP), and the World Health Organization (WHO) – issue a stark warning that these converging crises could reverse years of efforts.
Stalled Progress on Critical Nutrition Targets
The SOFI 2026 report also provides a sobering assessment of global nutrition targets. Progress in addressing maternal and child nutrition remains insufficient to meet international commitments, including the 2030 nutrition targets. Key indicators such as child stunting, wasting, overweight, low birthweight, and exclusive breastfeeding are showing only marginal improvements, with the pace of change too slow to achieve the desired outcomes.
Alarmingly, anaemia among women aged 15 to 49 years is worsening globally. Concurrently, the prevalence of adult obesity continues its steady increase, rising from 12.1 percent in 2012 to 16.2 percent in 2024, directly contradicting the target of halting its rise by 2025. These dual burdens of malnutrition – undernutrition and obesity – highlight the complex challenges facing global health and food systems. The report further reveals that only 30.8 percent of children aged 6 to 23 months worldwide consume a minimally diverse diet, and a staggering 150 million children under five years of age are still stunted, signifying long-term developmental consequences.
Regional variations in nutrition outcomes are also significant. While child stunting is declining in Africa and on track to meet the 2030 target in Asia, and exclusive breastfeeding rates are improving across most regions, the prevalence of anaemia among women is widening in nearly all regions. Child overweight, a growing concern, is increasing rapidly in Oceania.
The Prohibitive Cost of a Healthy Diet
A central focus of this year’s SOFI report is the escalating cost of a healthy diet, defined as the average minimum expenditure required to obtain locally available foods that meet energy and most nutrient requirements. According to FAO and WHO guidelines, a healthy diet is characterized by adequacy, balance, diversity, and moderation. The report unequivocally states that the cost remains a primary barrier to achieving SDG 2.
In 2025, the average global cost of a healthy diet rose to 4.28 purchasing power parity (PPP) dollars per person per day, an increase from 3.44 PPP dollars in 2021 and 2.94 PPP dollars in 2017. Latin America and the Caribbean recorded the highest average costs at 4.91 PPP dollars per day. While the absolute number of people unable to afford a healthy diet has declined – from 2.97 billion (37.4 percent of the global population) in 2021 to 2.69 billion (32.7 percent) in 2025 – this trend masks deeply entrenched regional disparities.
Africa’s affordability crisis is particularly severe, with 66.6 percent of its population unable to afford a healthy diet in 2025. This figure is more than double the levels observed in Asia and in Latin America and the Caribbean, illustrating a widening affordability gap on the continent.
The report attributes these significant cost variations to structural differences within agrifood systems. Animal source foods, fruits, and vegetables constitute the largest share of healthy diet costs, while starchy staples are relatively inexpensive. In Africa, animal source foods are the most significant cost driver, whereas vegetables dominate the cost in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Addressing the Cost: A Multifaceted Policy Challenge
The analysis of food value chains reveals that post-farmgate activities account for a substantial 70 to 75 percent of consumer prices, with processing, logistics, and wholesale contributing up to 40 percent of total costs. Improving efficiency in these segments is therefore identified as critical for lowering the cost of nutrient-rich, perishable foods.
Reducing the cost of a healthy diet necessitates context-specific policy interventions. These include expanding the supply of nutritious foods while simultaneously lowering structural costs across agrifood value chains. Investments in infrastructure, research and development, irrigation, and cold chains are crucial. Alongside these, reforms in subsidies, trade facilitation, and regulatory frameworks are essential. Furthermore, targeted interventions that boost productivity, reduce food loss and waste, and promote sustainable agricultural practices can yield a triple benefit: improving nutrition outcomes, strengthening resilience to shocks, and supporting climate goals.
The report concludes with a powerful statement: "The work that lies ahead over the years to 2030 is immense. However, a world in which a healthy diet is no longer out of reach for nearly one in three people is a world worth building."
Official Responses and Calls to Action
The heads of the five UN agencies involved in producing the SOFI 2026 report have collectively voiced their concerns and outlined pathways forward.
FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, emphasized the need for accelerated action: "The report shows that progress is possible, but we must move faster. Ending hunger and making healthy diets affordable requires political commitment, sustained investment and enabling policies. Recent crises – from natural disasters like the COVID-19 pandemic to man-made disasters like hotspots of conflicts, the war in Ukraine, the Gaza crisis, and the recent Strait of Hormuz disruption – have demonstrated both the resilience of agrifood systems and the need to strengthen them further to better serve the world’s most vulnerable people, farmers and consumers."
IFAD President, Alvaro Lario, highlighted the critical issue of affordability and the role of investment: "SOFI tells us that the cost of a healthy diet continues to rise and that nearly 2.7 billion people may still be unable to afford a healthy diet. Resilient value chains must be a central part of the answer. Our task now is to turn the evidence SOFI provides into investment – and to do so through partnership. Together, we can build the value chains, market systems and rural economies that make healthy food affordable for all."
UNICEF Executive Director, Catherine Russell, underscored the impact on children: "Every child deserves the chance to grow and develop to their full potential, and this starts with access to nutritious, affordable food. This report is a stark reminder that food systems fail millions of children and families. Food, health, education and social protection must go hand in hand to protect the most vulnerable children and women from global shocks."
WFP Acting Executive Director, Carl Skau, pointed to the interconnectedness of conflict, climate, and food security: "Behind every number in this report is a family counting the cost of food. Conflict and climate shocks push them further beyond their means. We must continue working with partner agencies, governments and communities to build food systems that hold up under shock, so families can afford nutritious diets, even in times of crisis. We now need sustained investment to match the scale of the challenge."
WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, reiterated the fundamental right to health and nutrition: "While we welcome the clear progress we have made in reducing hunger, a healthy diet still remains unaffordable for one in three people globally. Obesity is rising and progress on maternal and child nutrition is stalling. But we know what works: policies that make healthy food the easy choice, promoting breastfeeding, front-of-pack labelling, taxing unhealthy products, and protecting children from harmful marketing. Healthy diets are not a luxury – they are the foundation of health and must be within everyone’s reach."
The SOFI 2026 report serves as a critical barometer, indicating that while progress in combating hunger is being made, the world is not on track to achieve its most fundamental goals. The confluence of conflict, climate change, and economic instability presents a formidable challenge, demanding immediate, coordinated, and sustained action from governments, international organizations, and civil society to ensure a future where no one goes hungry and everyone has access to nutritious food.
