The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) and partners have launched the 2025 edition of the annual State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report (SOFI 2025). The report shows a decrease in the number of people experiencing hunger globally, from 8.5% in 2023 and 8.7% in 2022, to 8.2% in 2024 – about 673 million people in total. However, these numbers conceal significant regional disparities as hunger continues to rise in Africa and western Asia.
Themed, ‘Addressing High Food Price Inflation for Food Security and Nutrition,’ SOFI 2025 reports notable improvements in southern Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), where the prevalence of undernourishment (PoU) fell from 7.9% in 2022 to 6.7% in 2024 and from 6.1% in 2020 to 5.1% in 2024, respectively.
This positive trend is in sharp contrast with the steady rise in hunger across Africa and western Asia. In Africa, 307 million people – more than 20% of the population – faced hunger in 2024, while in western Asia, the proportion of the population experiencing hunger in 2024 is estimated at 12.7% – more than 39 million people.
SOFI 2025 reports a moderate decrease in the global prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity, from 28.4% in 2023 to 28% in 2024 (2.3 billion people). However, this is 335 million more than in 2019 and 683 million more than in 2015.
The report projects that 512 million people could be chronically undernourished by 2030, with almost 60% percent of those residing in Africa.
The report’s findings on nutrition include:
- There was a significant increase in the percentage of infants under six months exclusively breastfed, from 37% percent in 2012 to 47.8% in 2023;
- The prevalence of stunting in children under five declined from 26.4% in 2012 to 23.2% in 2024 globally;
- The prevalence of child overweight and child wasting remained largely unchanged;
- The prevalence of adult obesity increased from 12.1% in 2012 to 15.8% in 2022;
- The global prevalence of anaemia among women aged 15 to 49 increased from 27.6% in 2012 to 30.7% in 2023; and
- Only about one-third of children aged six to 23 months and two-thirds of women aged 15 to 49 years meet minimum dietary diversity.
In its analysis of the causes and consequences of the 2021-2023 food price surge and its impact on food security and nutrition, SOFI 2025 highlights the global policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the impacts of the war in Ukraine and extreme weather events among the drivers of recent inflationary pressures, with low-income countries (LICs) hit particularly hard.
To counter food price inflation, the report recommends a combination of policy responses, including: targeted and time-bound fiscal measures, such as social protection programs, to safeguard vulnerable households; credible and transparent monetary policies to contain inflationary pressures; and strategic investments in agrifood research and development (R&D), transport and production infrastructure, and market information systems to improve productivity and resilience.
The report was launched during the Second UN Food Systems Summit Stocktake (UNFSS+4) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 28 July 2025.
SOFI is FAO’s flagship report, co-published with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP), and the World Health Organization (WHO). It informs on progress towards ending hunger, achieving food security, and improving nutrition in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its SDG 2 (zero hunger). [Publication: The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2025: Addressing High Food Price Inflation for Food Security and Nutrition] [Publication Landing Page] [UN Press Release] [SDG Knowledge Hub Stories on SOFI 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2015]