The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) 2026 report, released on 21 July 2026 by five United Nations agencies, estimates that 645 million people, representing 7.8 percent of the global population, faced hunger in 2025. This marks the third consecutive year of decline in global hunger levels, down from 8.1 percent in 2024 and a peak of 8.6 percent in 2022. Despite this sustained improvement, the report warns that the world remains far off track to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 2, which aims to end hunger by 2030.
About the SOFI Report
The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) is the UN system’s flagship annual assessment of global hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition. It is jointly prepared by five specialized United Nations 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 SOFI report serves as the primary global monitoring tool for tracking progress towards SDG Target 2.1 (ending hunger) and SDG Target 2.2 (ending all forms of malnutrition). It provides governments, policymakers, and development partners with evidence-based estimates on food insecurity, diet quality, and nutrition outcomes across the world.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which leads the preparation of the report, was founded on 16 October 1945 in Quebec City, Canada. Its headquarters are in Rome, Italy, and it currently has 194 member nations plus the European Union. The FAO’s Director-General, QU Dongyu, launched the SOFI 2026 report at the organization’s headquarters in Rome on 21 July 2026. The 2026 edition, themed “Understanding and Addressing the High Cost of a Healthy Diet,” is the latest in a series that has been published annually for over two decades.
Global Hunger Trends: Three Consecutive Years of Decline
The SOFI 2026 report confirms that global hunger has been declining for three years in a row. An estimated 645 million people faced hunger in 2025, equivalent to 7.8 percent of the global population. This represents a reduction of nearly 14 million people compared to 2024, when 659 million (8.1 percent) were affected, and 43 million fewer than the 2022 peak of 688 million (8.6 percent).
The improvement is driven by steady gains in food production, recovery from pandemic-era disruptions, and targeted policy interventions in several regions. FAO Director-General QU Dongyu stated that the findings demonstrate “that determined policy action can deliver results,” while cautioning that the gains remain fragile and unevenly distributed.
Broader measures of food access tell a similar story of gradual improvement. In 2025, approximately 2.1 billion people, or 25.8 percent of the global population, experienced moderate or severe food insecurity, meaning they were at times forced to compromise on the quality or quantity of food they consumed. This is down from 27.1 percent in 2024 and 28.7 percent in 2020, the year the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a sharp global spike in hunger. In absolute terms, food insecurity affected 86 million fewer people in 2025 than in 2024 and 135 million fewer than in 2020.
| Year | Prevalence of Hunger (PoU) | Number of Hungry People | Food Insecurity (Moderate or Severe) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 8.9% | ~687 million | 28.7% (~2.3 billion) |
| 2022 | 8.6% | 688 million | 28.0% (~2.2 billion) |
| 2024 | 8.1% | 659 million | 27.1% (~2.2 billion) |
| 2025 | 7.8% | 645 million | 25.8% (~2.1 billion) |
Regional Disparities: Africa’s Deepening Crisis
While the global headline numbers are encouraging, the SOFI 2026 report reveals stark regional disparities. For the first time, Africa now hosts the largest number of people facing hunger in absolute terms, surpassing Asia. An estimated 309 million people in Africa remain undernourished, compared to 292 million in Asia. This shift reflects rapid population growth on the continent, which has outpaced the pace of hunger reduction.
Africa recorded an important turning point in 2025. The prevalence of hunger on the continent declined from 20.3 percent in 2024 to 20.0 percent in 2025, marking the first interruption of Africa’s upward hunger trend since 2017. However, with rapid population growth, the absolute number of hungry people could still increase in the coming years. More than half of Africa’s population, 56.6 percent, faced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2025, compared to 20.3 percent in Asia and 22.9 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Asia, together with Latin America and the Caribbean, has recorded steady improvements in recent years. Southern Asia and South America showed particularly strong gains. However, the situation in Africa remains deeply concerning. The report warns that without sustained investment in agriculture, infrastructure, and social protection, population growth alone could erode the progress made in reducing hunger prevalence across the continent.
The Cost of a Healthy Diet: A Growing Barrier
Beyond ensuring access to sufficient dietary energy, the SOFI 2026 report examines a critical dimension of food security: the affordability of nutritious food. According to FAO and WHO, a healthy diet is one that is adequate, balanced, diverse, and moderate. However, healthy diets remain out of reach for nearly one in three people worldwide.
In 2025, the average global cost of a healthy diet rose to 4.28 purchasing power parity (PPP) dollars per person per day, up from 3.44 PPP dollars in 2021 and 2.94 PPP dollars in 2017. The highest costs were recorded in Latin America and the Caribbean at 4.91 PPP dollars per person per day. At the same time, the number of people unable to afford a healthy diet declined from 2.97 billion (37.4 percent) in 2021 to 2.69 billion (32.7 percent) in 2025.
However, this progress masks significant regional disparities. In Africa, affordability worsened markedly, with 66.6 percent of the population unable to afford a healthy diet in 2025, more than double the levels observed in Asia and in Latin America and the Caribbean. The report highlights that post-farmgate activities, including storage, processing, transport, and retail, account for 70 to 75 percent of what consumers pay, with up to 40 percent of total costs arising in processing, logistics, and wholesale. Improving efficiency in these segments is critical, particularly for lowering the cost of perishable, nutrient-rich foods.
Nutrition Targets: Off Track for 2030
The SOFI 2026 report paints a troubling picture on global nutrition. Progress towards the 2030 global nutrition targets remains insufficient across nearly all indicators. The world is not on track to meet any of the seven maternal, infant, and young child nutrition targets set by the World Health Assembly.
Child stunting, defined as height-for-age below minus two standard deviations of the WHO Child Growth Standards median, fell from 26.4 percent (180.4 million children) in 2012 to 23.2 percent (150.2 million) in 2024. However, progress is too slow to reach the 2030 target of 16.8 percent. Child wasting, or weight-for-height below minus two standard deviations, declined marginally from 7.4 percent in 2012 to 6.6 percent in 2024, but is not on track to reach the target of 5 percent by 2030.
Several nutrition indicators are worsening. Anaemia among women aged 15 to 49 years rose from 27.6 percent in 2012 to 30.7 percent in 2023 and is projected to reach 32.6 percent by 2030, moving sharply away from the target of a 50 percent reduction. Adult obesity increased steadily from 12.1 percent in 2012 to 16.2 percent in 2024, with projections of 18.6 percent by 2030, far from the target of halting its rise by 2025.
| Indicator | 2012 | 2024 | 2030 Target | On Track? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Child Stunting (under 5 years) | 26.4% (180.4 million) | 23.2% (150.2 million) | 16.8% | No |
| Child Wasting (under 5 years) | 7.4% | 6.6% | 5.0% | No |
| Anaemia (Women 15-49) | 27.6% | 30.7% | 13.8% | No |
| Adult Obesity | 12.1% | 16.2% | Halt rise | No |
| Exclusive Breastfeeding (under 6 months) | 37.0% | 47.4% | 60.0% | No |
Hunger Projections: The 2030 Outlook
The SOFI 2026 report offers updated hunger projections for the next five years, taking into account the impact of the 2026 Middle East conflict on food inflation, driven by higher energy and fertilizer prices. Depending on the duration of the crisis, the projections present three possible scenarios for 2030.
Under a quick-recovery scenario, where energy and fertilizer markets recover quickly in the second half of 2026, approximately 511 million people, or 6 percent of the global population, may be chronically undernourished in 2030. Under a lasting crisis scenario, where the conflict has more lasting impacts on infrastructure and prices, the number could reach 522 million. In both cases, the global number of undernourished people is expected to decrease by about 20 percent over the next five years, but this still falls short of the SDG 2 target of ending hunger.
The pre-conflict projection, based on IMF forecasts prior to the 2026 Middle East crisis, had estimated that 503 million people could face hunger in 2030. The conflict has added an estimated 7 to 19 million more hungry people to that baseline. These estimates do not fully account for the potential impacts of weather extremes such as El Nino in 2026 and 2027, which could further compound these negative effects.
By 2030, an estimated 56 percent of the world’s undernourished people will be in Africa, or nearly 17 percent of the region’s population. In Asia and in Latin America and the Caribbean, the prevalence of undernourishment is projected to fall below 5 percent.
Policy Priorities and the Way Forward
At the launch of the SOFI 2026 report, the heads of all five co-publishing agencies called for urgent action to sustain and accelerate the progress made in recent years. FAO Director-General QU Dongyu emphasized that “progress cannot be taken for granted; it must be protected, accelerated and extended to everyone, everywhere.”
The report outlines several key policy priorities. First, governments must keep food, energy and agricultural input markets open and avoid export restrictions, which can drive up food prices for vulnerable populations. Second, targeted social protection programmes must be strengthened to reach those most at risk of hunger and malnutrition.
Longer-term investments are needed across agrifood systems, particularly in irrigation, storage facilities, cold chains, transport infrastructure, early-warning systems and anticipatory action mechanisms. The report notes that reducing the cost of nutritious foods requires context-specific policy responses that expand the supply of nutritious foods while lowering structural costs across agrifood value chains. This includes investments in research and development, alongside reforms in subsidies, trade facilitation and regulatory frameworks.
IFAD President Alvaro Lario stressed the importance of resilient value chains, noting that “resilient value chains must be a central part of the answer.” The agencies also urged governments and development partners to ensure farmers can access fertilizers, quality seeds, water, credit and other essential inputs before planting decisions become irreversible, particularly in regions vulnerable to climate shocks.
Key Takeaways
- The SOFI 2026 report estimates that 645 million people (7.8 percent of the global population) faced hunger in 2025, representing the third consecutive year of decline in global hunger levels.
- Global hunger has fallen from 8.6 percent in 2022 to 7.8 percent in 2025, with approximately 43 million fewer hungry people compared to the 2022 peak.
- Africa now hosts the largest number of hungry people in absolute terms at 309 million, surpassing Asia’s 292 million for the first time.
- The average global cost of a healthy diet rose to 4.28 PPP dollars per person per day in 2025, and approximately 2.69 billion people (32.7 percent) could not afford a healthy diet.
- Under a quick-recovery scenario, approximately 511 million people could still face hunger in 2030, putting the world off track to achieve SDG 2 (Zero Hunger).
- The report was jointly prepared by five UN agencies: FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO. The FAO was founded on 16 October 1945 and is headquartered in Rome, Italy.
