BetterEvery year the same figure travels: the number of hungry people in the world. It is real, it is carefully measured, and this year it went down for the third time in a row.
The same report contains a second figure, three times larger, that almost nobody quotes. Both come from the same page, published by the same five UN agencies, on the same day.
645 million people faced hunger in 2025, 7.8% of humanity, down for a third consecutive year.
2.1 billion people, 25.8%, experienced moderate or severe food insecurity: they were “at times forced to compromise on the quality or quantity of the food they ate”.
Both numbers are improving. Both are in the same report. Only one of them gets quoted.
FirstThe good news, and it is real
It deserves saying plainly, because good news about hunger is rare enough that skipping it would be its own distortion.
The FAO's own reading of it: this “demonstrates that progress is possible”. And immediately afterwards, in the same sentence: the improvements “remain fragile, unevenly distributed and insufficient” to reach the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
The number belowThe other indicator
Hunger, undernourishment, is a threshold. Below a certain caloric intake, sustained over time, a person is counted. It is a hard, defensible line, and it excludes almost everyone whose food situation is bad without being that bad.
25.8% of the world population in 2025, around 2.1 billion people, “were at times forced to compromise on the quality or quantity of the food they ate”.
This too is improving: 27.1% in 2024, 28.7% in 2020. That is 86 million fewer people than in 2024, and 135 million fewer than in 2020.
Read the definition again, compromise on the quality or the quantity. That is a household skipping a meal so the children eat, or replacing what nourishes with what fills. None of it registers as hunger, and all of it is measured.
And the third measurement completes it. The same report puts the global average cost of a healthy diet at 4.28 purchasing power parity dollars per person per day in 2025, up from 2.94 in 2017, and finds that 2.69 billion people, 32.7% of humanity, cannot afford it. In Africa, 66.6%.
Hunger, food insecurity, affordability: three thresholds, three different worlds, one report.
The mapWhere the people are
The global average hides a shift that happened without a headline.
Those two figures together are the whole difficulty of reading this subject. Africa's share is stabilising and even edging down, while its population grows fast enough that the absolute number now exceeds Asia's. A percentage improving and a headcount worsening are not a contradiction.
Two further gaps hold across countries: food insecurity remains more prevalent in rural areas than in peri-urban and urban ones, and women remain disproportionately affectedthough the gender gap narrowed slightly in 2025.
The forecastWhat threatens the trajectory
The five agencies do not leave the good news standing alone. They name what could undo it.
- The 2026 Middle East conflict, through its effect on food inflation, itself driven by energy and fertilizer prices.
- Weather extremes.
- Reductions in official development assistance and humanitarian funding.
Their projection puts numbers on it: depending on how long the crisis affects food prices, 510 to 520 million people may still face hunger in 2030, against 503 million in the pre-conflict scenario. A war measured in millions of hungry people, five years out, in a region that is not where most of them live.
One sentence from the report worth keeping. On the people already at the edge: “conflict and climate shocks push them further beyond their means.” Not into hunger, beyond their means. The mechanism is economic before it is agricultural.
What to take awayWhat two numbers teach
- The headline figure is the narrowest one. 645 million is a real count of a real threshold, and it leaves out 1.4 billion people the same report also counts.
- A share and a headcount can move in opposite directions. Africa's percentage is falling while its number rises. Anyone quoting only one of the two is telling half the story, whichever half they pick.
- Progress is real and it is fragile. Three consecutive years of decline, and three named threats capable of reversing them. Both halves come from the same page.
The most useful habit this report teaches is not about food. It is that a single number, however carefully measured, is a threshold someone chose, and the interesting people are usually just below it.
QuestionsFrequently asked questions
How many people are hungry in the world?
About 645 million in 2025, or 7.8% of the world population, according to the SOFI 2026 report published by five United Nations agencies. That is 14 million fewer than in 2024 and 43 million fewer than in 2022, a third consecutive year of decline.
What is moderate or severe food insecurity?
A second, much broader indicator, which the FAO defines as people who “were at times forced to compromise on the quality or quantity of the food they ate”. In 2025 it affected 25.8% of the world population, about 2.1 billion people. That is more than three times the number counted as hungry.
Is the situation improving?
On both indicators, yes, and the FAO writes that this demonstrates progress is possible. Hunger fell from 8.6% in 2022 to 7.8% in 2025; food insecurity from 28.7% in 2020 to 25.8% in 2025, or 135 million fewer people. But the report adds that the improvements “remain fragile, unevenly distributed and insufficient” to meet the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
Where are the people affected?
The most notable shift is regional: Africa is now home to around 309 million hungry people, compared with 292 million in Asia. The share of Africa's population affected is edging down, from 20.3% in 2024 to 20.0% in 2025, but the continent now has the highest number in absolute terms, against a rapidly growing population.
Who is most affected within a country?
The FAO notes two persistent gaps. Food insecurity remains more prevalent in rural areas than in peri-urban and urban ones. And women remain disproportionately affected, although the gender gap narrowed slightly in 2025.
What threatens this progress?
The five signatory agencies name three things: the 2026 Middle East conflict, weather extremes, and reductions in official development assistance and humanitarian funding. Depending on how long the crisis affects food inflation, itself driven by energy and fertilizer prices, around 510 to 520 million people may still face hunger in 2030, compared with 503 million in the pre-conflict scenario.
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Sources
About this article. General and educational information. The figures are from the 2026 edition of the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, published by five United Nations agencies: they are global and regional estimates, revised every year, and they describe no individual country. The projections quoted are scenarios, not forecasts.
Spotted an error or an out-of-date figure? Write to us: we will correct it and re-date the article. Our texts are written with the help of artificial intelligence and checked against official sources before publication, but a figure or a definition can change without us catching it. If anything here does not match what an official body tells you, they are right.