UN SOFI: 673 Million People Experienced Hunger in 2024

According to the latest United Nations (UN) report, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI 2025), global hunger has declined slightly to approximately 673 million people, or 8.2% of the population, in 2024. This marks a decrease from 8.5% in 2023, yet progress remains uneven as hunger continues to surge across Africa and Western Asia due to conflict and high food inflation.

The decline was largely driven by significant improvements in Southern Asia and Latin America, where the prevalence of undernourishment fell to 6.7% and 5.1%, respectively. In Africa, hunger now affects over 20% of its population, equivalent to more than 307 million people. Similarly, Western Asia has seen its hunger rate rise to 12.7%, illustrating a widening gap between regions that are recovering from recent global shocks and those mired in prolonged humanitarian crises.

Compounding these regional disparities is the lingering impact of global food price inflation, which has consistently outpaced general inflation since 2020. Low-income countries were the hardest hit, with food inflation peaking at 30% in mid-2023. While the number of people unable to afford a healthy diet fell to 2.6 billion globally, this figure actually rose in the world's poorest nations. UN agencies warn that without targeted investments in agricultural transformation and rural stability, 512 million people could remain chronically undernourished by 2030.

For more details, read the news article on the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations website.