The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2026: Progress Fragile, SDG Goals Remain Elusive Amidst Global Shocks
Global hunger has seen a decline for the third consecutive year, a testament to the possibility of progress, according to the latest comprehensive report, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2026 (SOFI 2026). Released on Tuesday by five United Nations specialized agencies, the report, however, paints a picture of fragile improvements, unevenly distributed gains, and a stark realization that the ambitious Sustainable Development Goal of ending hunger by 2030 remains significantly out of reach.
In 2025, an estimated 7.8 percent of the global population, or approximately 645 million people, faced hunger. This represents a modest but welcome reduction from 8.1 percent in 2024 and 8.6 percent in 2022. The cumulative decrease of nearly 14 million people compared to 2024 and 43 million compared to 2022 signifies a sustained, albeit slow, upward trajectory towards alleviating acute hunger. Yet, this progress is overshadowed by its precariousness and the vast disparities that persist across continents and communities.
Uneven Recovery and Regional Disparities
While Asia, alongside Latin America and the Caribbean, has demonstrated steady improvements in food security over recent years, Africa stands out as a continent grappling with the most severe hunger crisis. It is now home to an estimated 309 million hungry individuals, surpassing Asia’s 292 million. Although the previously escalating trend of hunger in Africa appears to be stabilizing, with the proportion of its population affected by hunger inching down from 20.3 percent in 2024 to 20.0 percent in 2025, the sheer absolute number of hungry people, coupled with a rapidly growing population, presents a formidable challenge. Africa now bears the unenviable distinction of hosting the largest number of people experiencing hunger globally.
The broader measure of food insecurity, which encompasses both moderate and severe levels, offers a similarly mixed and concerning panorama. In 2025, an estimated 25.8 percent of the global population, equivalent to around 2.1 billion people, experienced food insecurity. This means these individuals were intermittently forced to compromise on the quality or quantity of food consumed. While this figure represents a reduction from 27.1 percent in 2024 and 28.7 percent in 2020 – translating to approximately 86 million fewer people facing insecurity than in 2024 and 135 million fewer than in 2020 – it remains stubbornly above pre-pandemic levels. The lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, combined with escalating geopolitical conflicts and climate shocks, have evidently left deep scars on global food systems, hindering a full recovery.
Regional disparities in food insecurity are stark and deeply entrenched. More than half of Africa’s population, a staggering 56.6 percent, faced 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). Further compounding the issue, food insecurity continues to disproportionately affect rural populations compared to those in peri-urban and urban settings. Women, too, remain more vulnerable, although the gender gap in food insecurity narrowed slightly in 2025, indicating that while some progress has been made, systemic inequalities persist.
Hunger Projections Under Shadow of Conflict and Climate
The SOFI 2026 report also provides updated projections for hunger over the next five years, factoring in the significant impact of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. The report warns that depending on the duration of its effects on food inflation – exacerbated by rising energy and fertilizer prices – the global number of people facing hunger in 2030 could still hover between 510 to 520 million. This is a sobering figure compared to the pre-conflict projection of 503 million. While the report anticipates a 20 percent decrease in the global undernourished population by 2030, this optimistic outlook is heavily contingent on the resolution of current crises and the absence of further disruptions.
Crucially, these projections do not account for other potential disruptors, such as the anticipated weather extremes like El Niño events projected for 2026 and 2027. Such events, with their history of devastating agricultural impacts, could further exacerbate the food security situation, potentially pushing millions more into hunger.
The joint authors of the report – 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 grave warning: the 2026 Middle East conflict, alongside escalating climate extremes and dwindling official development assistance and humanitarian funding, collectively threaten to unravel the hard-won progress made in the global fight against hunger. The confluence of these global shocks creates a volatile environment where even marginal gains are at risk of being reversed.
Stagnant Progress on Global Nutrition Targets
Beyond the immediate concern of hunger, the report underscores a deeply troubling stagnation in global progress on maternal and child nutrition, falling far short of international commitments, including the 2030 nutrition targets. Indicators such as child stunting (low height for age), wasting (low weight for height), overweight, low birthweight, and exclusive breastfeeding are showing only marginal improvements. The pace of progress is simply too slow to achieve the set targets.
In a disturbing trend, anaemia among women aged 15 to 49 years is worsening, a critical indicator of overall population health and a significant barrier to development. Simultaneously, the prevalence of adult obesity continues its steady climb, increasing from 12.1 percent in 2012 to 16.2 percent in 2024. This stands in direct contradiction to the target of halting its rise by 2025, highlighting a dual burden of malnutrition where hunger and obesity coexist and exacerbate each other.
The statistics for children are equally alarming. Only 30.8 percent of children aged 6 to 23 months worldwide consume a minimally diverse diet, essential for their growth and development. Furthermore, a staggering 150 million children under the age of five years are still affected by stunting, a condition with lifelong implications for cognitive development and physical health.
Regional variations in nutrition outcomes mirror the patterns observed in food security. While the prevalence of child stunting is declining in Africa and appears to be on track to meet the 2030 target in Asia, and exclusive breastfeeding rates are improving across most regions with available data, other critical indicators paint a grim picture. Nearly all regions are witnessing widening gaps in addressing anaemia among women. Child overweight, a precursor to obesity and non-communicable diseases, is increasing rapidly in Oceania, posing a significant future public health challenge.
The Prohibitive Cost of a Healthy Diet
This year’s SOFI report places a significant emphasis on the cost of a healthy diet, defining it as the minimum expenditure required to access locally available foods that meet energy and most nutrient requirements. According to FAO and WHO, a healthy diet is characterized by being adequate, balanced, diverse, and moderate. The report unequivocally states that the prohibitive cost of such diets remains a major impediment to achieving SDG 2 (Zero Hunger). While reducing these costs is essential, it is not a panacea; improving dietary quality and nutrition outcomes requires a multi-faceted approach.
In 2025, the average global cost of a healthy diet rose to 4.28 purchasing power parity (PPP) dollars per person per day. This marks an increase from 3.44 PPP dollars in 2021 and 2.94 PPP dollars in 2017. Latin America and the Caribbean reported the highest average cost at 4.91 PPP dollars per day. While the number of people unable to afford a healthy diet has declined globally – from 2.97 billion (37.4 percent of the world population) in 2021 to 2.69 billion (32.7 percent) in 2025 – this overall decrease masks profound regional disparities.
In Africa, the affordability of a healthy diet has worsened markedly. In 2025, a staggering 66.6 percent of the population was unable to afford a healthy diet, a figure more than double that observed in Asia and in Latin America and the Caribbean. This indicates that for a significant portion of the African population, access to nutritious food is not just a matter of availability but a fundamental economic impossibility.
The cost of healthy diets varies significantly across regions, influenced by structural differences in agrifood systems. Animal-source foods, fruits, and vegetables constitute the largest share of these costs, while staple grains contribute relatively little. In Africa, animal-source foods are the primary driver of healthy diet costs, whereas in Latin America and the Caribbean, vegetables represent the largest expenditure.
Food value chains play a pivotal role in determining food prices. Post-farmgate activities, encompassing processing, logistics, and wholesale, account for 70 to 75 percent of what consumers ultimately pay, with up to 40 percent of total costs arising in these stages. This highlights the critical importance of improving efficiency within these segments, particularly for lowering the cost of perishable, nutrient-rich foods that are essential for a healthy diet.
Policy Imperatives for a Healthier Future
The report advocates for context-specific policy responses to reduce the cost of a healthy diet. These interventions must focus on expanding the supply of nutritious foods while simultaneously lowering structural costs across agrifood value chains. Key recommendations include increased investments in infrastructure, research and development, irrigation systems, and cold chain logistics. Reforms in subsidy regimes, trade facilitation measures, and regulatory frameworks are also deemed essential.
Furthermore, targeted interventions aimed at boosting productivity, reducing food losses, and promoting sustainable agricultural practices can yield a triple dividend: simultaneously improving nutrition outcomes, strengthening the resilience of food systems to shocks, and supporting global climate goals. The report’s overarching message is clear: the work ahead is immense, but a world where a healthy diet is accessible to all is a world worth striving for.
Expert Voices on the Path Forward
The heads of the five UN agencies involved in the SOFI 2026 report have articulated their concerns and called for urgent action:
FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, emphasized, "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, stated, "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, "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, highlighted, "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, concluded, "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, albeit sobering, assessment of the global food security and nutrition landscape. It underscores the interconnectedness of peace, climate action, economic stability, and equitable development in achieving the ultimate goal of a world free from hunger and malnutrition. The progress made is a beacon of hope, but its fragility demands intensified and coordinated global efforts to ensure that no one is left behind.
