Africa: Global Hunger Declines Again but Progress Remains Uneven Across Regions

Global Hunger Declines for Third Year, but Africa Now Bears the Largest Burden

Global hunger declined for a third consecutive year in 2025, according to a new United Nations report, yet progress remains fragile and uneven across regions. The report, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI), released on Tuesday, estimates that 645 million people worldwide faced hunger in 2025 — 14 million fewer than in 2024 and 43 million fewer than in 2022.

The global proportion of people facing hunger fell from 8.6% in 2022 to 7.8% in 2025, according to the UN agencies behind the report. While this marks a third consecutive year of improvement after hunger surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of hungry people remains higher than before the pandemic struck, as noted by Al Jazeera.

Africa's Growing Burden

For the first time, Africa now hosts the largest number of people facing hunger globally, according to multiple reports. An estimated 309 million people in Africa were undernourished in 2025 — equivalent to one in five people on the continent — surpassing Asia's 292 million, as reported by The Hindu, AllAfrica, and Al Jazeera.

The prevalence of undernourishment has been on the rise in Africa since 2017, The Hindu reported, although the most recent estimates suggest signs of a turnaround in 2025. Africa's hunger rate dipped slightly from 20.3% in 2024 to 20.0% in 2025, but rapid population growth means the continent now has the highest number of hungry people in absolute terms, as noted by AllAfrica and Al Jazeera.

The shift represents a significant geographic change. "The centre of gravity of hunger has shifted from Asia to Africa," said David Laborde, director of the agrifood economics division at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), as quoted by The Hindu's reporting. "Twenty-five years ago China still had a problem with hunger but they solved them; India also has a problem but they are putting lots of effort into actively resolving it."

Asia has 292 million people facing hunger — 6% of its population — while Latin America and the Caribbean account for 32 million, according to Al Jazeera. Asia and Latin America have recorded steady gains in reducing both the share and number of hungry people in recent years, AllAfrica reported.

The Challenge of Affordable Healthy Diets

Beyond hunger, the report identifies affordability as one of the world's biggest food security challenges. Roughly one-third of the global population cannot afford a healthy diet, according to The Guardian, which reported that 2.69 billion people are unable to afford a diverse diet that meets their energy and nutrient needs.

The cost of a healthy diet reached $4.28 purchasing power parity dollars per day in 2025, The Guardian reported, citing FAO chief economist Maximo Torero. "The extreme poverty line is $3PPP per person," Torero said. "So it's significantly higher."

The problem is particularly acute in Africa. Two-thirds of Africans (66.6%) cannot afford a healthy diet — more than double the level in Asia, as reported by The Hindu's coverage and AllAfrica. The report encouraged African nations to prioritize transforming the animal source food sector, which is the most expensive food group in the region, The Hindu noted.

Torero highlighted that government policies have typically focused on subsidising cereals and starchy staples rather than meat, dairy, fruit and vegetables. "That means calories, but not a diversity of diet," he said, as quoted by The Guardian, noting the impact on rates of obesity and diseases such as cancer and diabetes. Figures from the World Health Organization, one of the report's authors, show adult obesity rose from 12.1% in 2012 to 16.2% in 2024, The Guardian reported.

Key Claims

• Global hunger declined for a third consecutive year in 2025, with 645 million people affected — down from 8.6% of the global population in 2022 to 7.8% in 2025 (multiple sources).
• Africa now has the largest number of hungry people, with 309 million affected in 2025, surpassing Asia's 292 million (multiple sources).
• The prevalence of undernourishment has risen in Africa since 2017, though the most recent estimates suggest a possible turnaround in 2025 (reported by The Hindu).
• The number of people unable to afford a healthy diet fell from 2.97 billion in 2021 to 2.69 billion in 2025 (reported by The Guardian).
• The cost of a healthy diet reached $4.28 per day in 2025 (reported by The Guardian).
• 1.4 million people worldwide are facing catastrophic hunger (reported by Al Jazeera).
• Conflicts and disruptions to global energy markets could push millions more people into hunger by driving up fuel, fertiliser and food costs, according to IFAD President Alvaro Lario (reported by Africa News).

Outlook and Warnings

The UN projects that more than 500 million people could still face chronic hunger by 2030, with Africa expected to bear the largest share of that burden, as reported by Africa News. Al Jazeera's coverage projects that 510 million to 520 million people are still expected to face hunger by the end of the decade, with 56% of them living in Africa.

Conflict remains one of the biggest obstacles to reducing hunger worldwide, said IFAD President Alvaro Lario, as quoted by Africa News. Wars and geopolitical tensions can disrupt shipping, energy supplies and agricultural inputs, increasing costs across food systems already strained by inflation. Lario warned that hunger and conflict often reinforce one another, creating a cycle that is difficult to break without greater stability.

Climate change is adding further pressure to food systems, and the report warns that recent crises, including the 2026 US-Israel situation as noted by Al Jazeera, could exacerbate the situation. The UN warns that progress remains fragile and far too slow to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of ending hunger by 2030, as reported by AllAfrica and The Guardian.