Africa Now Has World’s Largest Hungry Population Despite Global Decline in Hunger – Report
Oluwatobi Adu 
ABUJA, Nigeria — Africa has overtaken Asia as the region with the highest number of people experiencing hunger despite a third consecutive year of global progress in reducing hunger, according to a new United Nations report.
The findings are contained in the 2026 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report released on Tuesday by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
The report estimates that about 645 million people experienced hunger globally in 2025, representing 7.8 per cent of the world’s population, down from 8.1 per cent in 2024 and 8.6 per cent in 2022.
Despite the global improvement, Africa now accounts for approximately 309 million hungry people, surpassing Asia’s 292 million, largely due to rapid population growth.
Although the proportion of Africans experiencing hunger declined slightly from 20.3 per cent in 2024 to 20.0 per cent in 2025, the report found that more than half of the continent’s population continues to experience moderate or severe food insecurity.
The report also highlighted growing inequality in access to nutritious food, revealing that 66.6 per cent of Africans could not afford a healthy diet in 2025—more than twice the proportion recorded in Asia and Latin America.
According to the report, high food prices, expensive supply chains and inadequate investment in agricultural infrastructure continue to drive up the cost of nutrient-rich foods, including fruits, vegetables and animal-source foods.
Beyond hunger, the UN agencies warned that global progress against malnutrition remains too slow to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
Worldwide, about 150 million children under five years remain stunted, anaemia among women of reproductive age continues to worsen, while adult obesity is increasing steadily.
The agencies also cautioned that ongoing conflicts, climate-related shocks and declining humanitarian funding could reverse recent gains in global food security.
WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, welcomed the decline in global hunger but stressed that access to healthy diets remains beyond the reach of billions.
“While we welcome the progress in reducing hunger, a healthy diet remains unaffordable for one in three people globally. Healthy diets are not a luxury—they are the foundation of health and must be within everyone’s reach,” he said.
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Otamere Gladness 
Hussaini Ibrahim 
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