UN Report Finds Global Hunger Fell in 2025, but 645 Million People Remained Undernourished

Global hunger declined for a third consecutive year in 2025, but about 645 million people still experienced hunger, according to a report released July 21, 2026, by five United Nations agencies. The agencies said the improvement remains fragile, uneven and insufficient to put the world on track to meet the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

The 2026 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report estimated that 7.8% of the global population faced hunger last year. That was down from 8.1% in 2024 and 8.6% in 2022. The estimate represents nearly 14 million fewer people than in 2024 and 43 million fewer than in 2022.

A global improvement with sharp regional differences

The report was produced by the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, UNICEF, the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization. It examines hunger, food insecurity, nutrition and the cost of a healthy diet across countries and regions.

The headline decline is global, not universal. The agencies’ findings do not mean that food access improved in every country or that households everywhere can afford a healthy diet. Regional disparities remain a central part of the report, and the agencies described progress as too limited to satisfy the world’s 2030 hunger and nutrition goals.

That distinction matters for readers tracking both humanitarian conditions and everyday costs. A lower global hunger estimate does not by itself show that food has become broadly affordable. The UN report’s focus on the cost of a healthy diet underscores the difference between reducing the number of people facing hunger and ensuring that people can consistently obtain nutritious food.

Conflict and funding cuts threaten the gains

The agencies warned that the 2026 conflict in the Middle East, extreme weather and reductions in development assistance and humanitarian funding could reverse the progress recorded in 2025. The timing creates an important limit on the new figures: the hunger estimate describes conditions in 2025, while the main warnings concern risks unfolding in 2026 and beyond.

A separate Global Report on Food Crises 2026, released July 2 by the World Food Programme, FAO and the Global Network Against Food Crises, said famine was confirmed in parts of Gaza and Sudan in 2025. It also said famine risk persisted in Gaza, Sudan and South Sudan in 2026.

Those findings are context-specific. The report’s statement that famine risk persisted in the three locations does not mean famine was found in every country named as being at risk. It does show how global averages can coexist with severe crises in particular places.

Food prices remain part of the pressure

Food markets also offer a mixed picture. FAO reported that its Food Price Index stood at 130.3 points in June 2026, down 0.3% from May but still 2.2% above its level a year earlier.

FAO said cereal production was forecast to be the second-highest on record, although the forecast was 1.9% below the previous year’s record. That combination illustrates why production and prices can move differently: strong expected output does not automatically eliminate affordability problems or the risks facing people in conflict-affected and climate-exposed areas.

What comes next

The immediate challenge identified by the agencies is to protect the 2025 gains against conflict, weather shocks, high food costs and shrinking assistance. The next long-term benchmark is the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, which the report says current progress is not sufficient to meet.

For now, the data show a modest global improvement alongside continuing large-scale need. Hunger fell to its lowest reported share in the packet’s comparison, but the remaining total—645 million people—and the concentrated famine risks in Gaza, Sudan and South Sudan leave little room to treat the decline as secure.