Africa overtakes Asia in hunger levels, 309m face food shortages – Report

… global ​hunger declined for a third consecutive year in 2025

One in five Africans is facing hunger, with the continent surpassing Asia as the region with the highest number of hungry people, at 309 million, according to SOFI 2026 report.

The continent’s rapidly growing population has contributed to the surge, despite a slight decrease in the share of Africans experiencing hunger, from 20.3 percent in 2024 to 20 percent in 2025.

The report, released by five United Nations specialized agencies, highlighted the uneven progress in reducing global hunger. While Asia and Latin America have recorded steady improvements, Africa’s numbers have swelled, with more than half of the population (56.6 percent) facing moderate or severe food insecurity.

The situation is particularly dire in rural areas, where food insecurity is more prevalent.

The report estimated that 7.8 percent of the global population faced hunger in 2025, down from 8.1 percent in 2024 and 8.6 percent in 2022, confirming a sustained, but slow, improvement.

This means that around 645 million people were affected by hunger in 2025, representing a reduction of nearly 14 million compared to 2024 and 43 million compared to 2022.

Speaking at the launch of the report, QU Dongyu, director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), said the three consecutive years of progress in reducing global hunger demonstrate that hunger is not inevitable.

“These numbers are important because they show that hunger is not inevitable.” “With strong economic policies, social protection and sustained investments in more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable agrifood systems, we can bend the hunger curve.”

The UN agencies warn that the global decline in hunger is fragile and uneven, and that progress is insufficient to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

The report cites the Middle East conflict, weather extremes, and reductions in official development assistance and humanitarian funding as threats to undermining progress on hunger reduction.

Qu noted that hunger is only one dimension of the global food security challenge: Nearly one-third of the world’s population remains unable to afford a healthy diet, exposing millions to malnutrition and diet-related non-communicable diseases.

While food production has expanded in many regions, SOFI 2026 shows that nutritious foods often remain costly because expenses accumulate across storage, processing, transport and retail stages.

Inadequate infrastructure, weak cold-chain systems, unreliable energy supplies and inefficient markets continue to drive up the price of fruits, vegetables and animal-source foods, limiting access for low-income households.