More than 673 million people experienced hunger in 2024, accounting for over 8.2 percent of the global population, according to the UN’s 2025 SOFI report. Although this figure marks slight progress compared to 2023, it still signifies a humanitarian crisis far from pre-pandemic hunger levels.
The persistence of hunger and inequality highlights a stark reality. Global food production is sufficient to feed more than eight billion people. Yet, millions remain deprived of basic nutrition daily.
Unequal Progress in the Battle Against Hunger
The new State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) Report 2025, released by five UN agencies, highlights that global progress is uneven. It also points out that the progress is fragile. While Asia and Latin America have made notable gains, hunger continues to rise steadily across Africa and Western Asia.
Improved agricultural productivity and economic recovery have helped lower hunger in Asia by 1.2 percent, yet this success contrasts starkly with growing disparities elsewhere. In Africa, one in five people remain undernourished. In Western Asia, one in eight people remain undernourished. These figures demonstrate the lasting impact of conflict, inequality, and climate-related disasters.
The Persistent Gap in Achieving Zero Hunger
According to FAO projections, approximately 512 million people could remain chronically undernourished by 2030. This makes the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 2) — Zero Hunger — increasingly out of reach. Nearly 60 percent of the chronically undernourished population by the end of the decade will likely live in Africa. Structural poverty and conflict persist there.
Global hunger continues to exceed pre-COVID-19 levels by hundreds of millions, illustrating how economic disruptions and social inequality perpetuate food insecurity worldwide. Despite incremental global decline, recent trends reveal that current progress is insufficient to offset persistent vulnerabilities and recurring food system shocks.
Conflict and Political Instability: The Deepest Cause of Food Crises
Armed conflicts in Ukraine, Sudan, and Gaza continue to devastate food production systems, disrupt supply chains, and displace millions from agricultural livelihoods. For instance, Haiti faces one of its worst food security crises, with 5.7 million people, nearly half the population, enduring acute hunger amid continuing violence.
Conflict leads to both immediate hunger through displacement and long-term devastation by destroying crops, disrupting trade, and eroding community resilience. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) plays a critical role here—distributing essential food aid, restoring farmland, and providing seeds and livestock to help people rebuild self-sufficiency.
Climate Change and Extreme Weather Worsen Food Insecurity
Climate disasters, from extended droughts to severe floods, have become a primary driver of hunger in 2025. Countries such as Somalia, South Sudan, Mali, and the DRC are facing compounded crises where drought and conflict converge, magnifying vulnerability. In Somalia, farmers battle the worst drought in forty years, while floods in Sudan wash away harvests, eroding food stability for tens of millions.
The FAO and UNEP are promoting climate-resilient farming practices, including techniques like the half-moon agricultural method in the Sahel that restores degraded land and retains water.
Economic Shocks and Food Inflation Deepen the Crisis
Rising food prices—from 2020 through 2024—have undermined affordability, pushing millions toward hunger despite increased agricultural output. The combined effect of COVID-19, supply disruptions from the Ukraine war, and accelerated climate shocks has driven food inflation far beyond headline inflation globally.
According to the World Bank’s Food Security Update 2025, food price inflation remains above five percent in more than half of all low-income countries. While developed economies experienced moderate relief, the poorest countries saw food inflation peak above 30 percent, heavily eroding purchasing power among already fragile populations.
Impact on Diets and Nutrition
Before the pandemic, about 2.76 billion people could not afford a healthy diet; this number narrowed slightly to 2.6 billion by 2024 yet remains distressing. The improvement is misleading, as affordability increased only in richer nations, while access worsened across low- and lower-middle-income countries.
High food costs force families to shift diets away from protein, fruits, and vegetables toward cheaper, calorie-dense foods, worsening malnutrition and health outcomes.
UNICEF and WHO emphasize that child malnutrition rates remain high, with rising anaemia among women aged 15–49 and increasing adult obesity due to poor diet diversity.
Inequality and Structural Poverty Trap Billions in Hunger
Deep-rooted poverty and inequality remain among the strongest predictors of chronic hunger globally.
Around 700 million people live in extreme poverty, with two-thirds residing in Sub-Saharan Africa, where limited infrastructure exacerbates food and income insecurity.
Marginalized communities—especially women, indigenous groups, and smallholder farmers—bear disproportionate burdens due to unequal access to land, markets, and nutrition services.
To counter this, UN agencies advocate transitioning from short-term famine relief to long-term social protection systems that empower local food production and resilience.
Trade Disruptions and Market Volatility Expose Fragile Economies
Trade restrictions, export bans, and supply-chain dependencies heighten price volatility and limit food availability in import-dependent countries. In 2025, nations like Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka continue to struggle with food price shocks linked to global supply disruptions and debt instability.
Fuel and fertilizer costs further inflate agricultural production expenses, dampening yields and limiting smallholder farmers’ access to essential resources for sustaining livelihoods.
Meanwhile, global tariffs and currency fluctuations continue to destabilize fragile economies, widening the gap between regions with surplus and those perpetually in food deficit.
“Perfect Storm” of Interlinked Crises
The SOFI Report 2025 warns about the impact of COVID-19-related economic policies. It also highlights war-induced trade restrictions and rapid climate shocks. These issues have converged into a “perfect storm.” This combination keeps food insecurity stubbornly above pre-2019 levels, especially in fragile contexts already battling instability.
Inflation-adjusted data show 335 million more people faced food insecurity in 2024 than before the pandemic. This situation makes recovery fragile. It is also uneven.
These overlapping crises exacerbate inequality, fuel migration, and threaten global economic stability—issues inseparable from broader challenges like climate adaptation and public health resilience.
How UN Agencies Are Responding
The collective response of the FAO, IFAD, WFP, UNICEF, and WHO aims to transform food systems through inclusive policy, resilience-building, and direct humanitarian assistance.
Programs focus on improving access to affordable healthy diets, empowering small farmers, and reducing post-harvest losses through infrastructural modernization and climate-adaptive farming.
The World Food Programme has warned that global funding shortfalls—up to 40 percent cuts this year—risk reversing small but significant hunger reductions.
UN leaders stress that bridging the global funding gap is essential not only for food relief but for promoting stability, development, and health interconnectedly.
Hunger and Health: The Hidden Connection
Beyond empty plates, hunger ravages physical, psychological, and community wellbeing, disproportionately affecting pregnant women, children, and older adults.
Undernutrition contributes to nearly half of all child deaths worldwide, either directly through disease vulnerability or indirectly through developmental setbacks. Health experts warn that persistent food insecurity increases non-communicable diseases, weakens immune systems, and undermines long-term productivity, perpetuating poverty cycles.
Addressing hunger, therefore, remains not only a matter of welfare—it is a foundational pillar of global public health and human dignity.
The Way Forward: Building Sustainable Food Systems
Experts agree that tackling hunger requires coordinated, systemic reforms rather than temporary solutions. The UN’s approach calls for targeted fiscal policies, strategic agricultural investments, and fair global trade mechanisms that strengthen local food systems and reduce dependency.
Governments must also prioritize gender equity, soil health, rural education, and climate adaptation, ensuring that local communities are central to sustainable transformation.
As World Food Day 2025 approaches under the theme “Grow, Nourish, Sustain—Together”, global solidarity remains essential to turn commitments into real progress for all.
Closing the Hunger Gap
While food insecurity has seen slight global improvement, the reality remains sobering—millions still go hungry in a world of abundance. The 2025 UN reports confirm that structural inequality, conflict, economic shocks, and climate change are keeping billions trapped in cycles of poverty and poor nutrition.
Reaching the Zero Hunger goal by 2030 requires more than aid—it requires reform, accountability, and inclusive agricultural innovation that prioritizes people over profit. Unless global leaders act decisively, hunger will continue to haunt future generations even as the world produces more than enough to feed them all.