The UN's annual report on food security and nutrition found that there has been gradual improvement in recent years toward reducing hunger overall, but this progress has been uneven.
"The center of gravity of hunger has shifted from Asia to Africa," said David Laborde, director of the agrifood economics division at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The report, put together by the FAO and four other UN agencies, estimates that hunger affected 309 million people in Africa last year, 20% of the population. In Asia, 292 million people were affected by hunger, 6% of the population.
Overall, the proportion of the world population facing hunger decreased from 8.6% in 2022 to 7.8% in 2025. While that represents a drop of 43 million people, the current total of hungry people is higher than before the COVID pandemic.
