Global hunger levels have declined for the third consecutive year, with approximately 673 million people, or 8.2% of the world’s population, experiencing hunger in 2024. Improved access to food in regions like South America and India has driven this downward trend. However, Africa and the Middle East continue to struggle with deepening malnutrition and climate shocks.
In Africa, over 307 million people, or one in five, are chronically undernourished, indicating a higher prevalence of hunger than 20 years ago. The continent’s rapid population growth, conflict, extreme weather, and inflation have outpaced productivity gains. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization’s chief economist, Maximo Torero, “We must urgently reverse this trajectory.”
The hunger rate in South America fell to 3.8% in 2024 from 4.2% in 2023, driven by improved agricultural productivity and social programs like school meals. In southern Asia, hunger rates decreased to 11% from 12.2%, largely due to new data from India showing increased access to healthy diets.
Despite progress, the world is still far from achieving zero hunger by 2030. Persistent inequalities affect women and rural communities disproportionately, widening the gap in accessing nutritious food. The global figure for people unable to afford a healthy diet fell from 2.76 billion in 2019 to 2.6 billion in 2024, but the number increased in Africa from 864 million to just over one billion during the same period.
Conflict continues to drive hunger, disrupts food production, and hinders humanitarian access, as seen in Gaza and Sudan. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres emphasized that “conflict continues to drive hunger from Gaza to Sudan and beyond,” adding that “hunger further feeds future instability and undermines peace.”