Key Details
The table summarises the report's principal findings on hunger, food affordability, nutrition and the global outlook.
Key Area | Main Update |
|---|---|
Global hunger | Hunger declined to 7.8% of the global population in 2025 (about 645 million people), down from 8.1%in 2024. |
Food insecurity | Moderate or severe food insecurity affected 2.1 billion people (25.8%), while 778.6 million faced severe food insecurity. |
Healthy diets | 2.69 billion people could not afford a healthy diet despite gradual improvement since 2021. |
Regional shift | Africa now has the largest number of hungry people (309 million), surpassing Asia for the first time. |
2030 outlook | Around 510–520 million people are still projected to face hunger by 2030, with more than half living in Africa. |
Hunger Is Falling, but Progress Remains Too Slow
The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) 2026 reports that global hunger declined for the third consecutive year in 2025, with around 43 million fewer people experiencing hunger than in 2022. However, the pace of improvement remains insufficient to achieve SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) by 2030.
Conflict, economic shocks and climate change continue to drive food insecurity, while rural populations and women remain disproportionately affected. The report also identifies a significant regional shift, with Africa now accounting for the world's largest hungry population.
Affordable Nutrition Has Become the Bigger Challenge
Despite the decline in hunger, 2.69 billion people still cannot afford a healthy diet. The report identifies the high cost of nutrient-rich foods—including fruits, vegetables and animal-source foods—as the principal barrier to better nutrition.
It argues that agrifood policies remain heavily oriented towards staple crop production, while underinvestment in horticulture, livestock, cold chains, storage and food logistics continues to keep nutritious foods expensive. As a result, calorie availability has improved more rapidly than access to healthy diets.
Nutrition Security Requires a Different Policy Approach
The report finds that the world remains off track to meet most global nutrition targets. Child dietary diversity remains low, while anaemia among women and adult obesity continue to rise, reflecting a growing double burden of malnutrition.
It argues that improving nutrition will require agrifood policies that go beyond increasing food production to making healthy diets more affordable through diversified agriculture, stronger value chains, better post-harvest infrastructure and targeted public investment.
For India, the report notes that updated household survey data contributed to improved estimates for Southern Asia and recognises the role of existing food security programmes in maintaining access to staple foods. It suggests that the next policy challenge lies in improving the affordability of nutrient-dense foods while addressing persistent child wasting and anaemia.
Policy Relevance
Move Beyond Calorie Security: The report notes that India's food security architecture has substantially improved access to staple foods. Future policy will increasingly need to focus on making nutritious diets affordable rather than simply ensuring calorie availability.
Diversify Agricultural Support: Greater investment in fruits, vegetables, pulses, livestock and allied sectors can improve both diet quality and agricultural resilience while reducing the cost of nutrient-rich foods.
Strengthen Food Supply Chains: Expanding cold chains, storage, food processing and logistics can reduce post-harvest losses and improve year-round availability of perishable, nutritious foods.
Target Nutrition Outcomes: Nutrition policy should increasingly measure success through dietary diversity, affordability and health outcomes alongside food production and distribution indicators.
Follow the Full FAO Report Here: The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) 2026