Conflicts, climate change and persistent inequalities are hampering progress on ending hunger

Global hunger showed a modest decrease in 2024, but millions of people still struggle to get enough food. An estimated 673 million people – 8.2 per cent of the world’s population – experienced chronic hunger, down from 8.5 per cent in 2023 but still higher than the 2015 level of 7.7 per cent. Progress was driven largely by robust post-pandemic economic recoveries in Southern Asia and Latin America, even as hunger rose steadily in Western Asia and Africa.

Food insecurity also declined since 2021 but remained well above 2015 levels. In 2024, 28 per cent of the global population—around 2.3 billion people—were moderately or severely food insecure, up from 21.4 per cent (1.6 billion) in 2015. Sub-Saharan Africa saw the sharpest rise, with over two-thirds of its population affected, compared to nearly 50 per cent in 2015. In Central and Southern Asia, and Northern Africa and Western Asia, over one-third faced moderate or severe food insecurity.

Malnutrition among young children saw signs of improvement globally, with stunting (low height for age) and wasting (low weight for height) falling between 2012 and 2024. Globally, stunting in the under-5 population fell from 26.4 per cent to 23.2 per cent, reducing the number of affected children by 30.2 million. Over the same period, the prevalence of wasting fell from 7.4 per cent to 6.6 per cent, affecting 8.1 million fewer children.

Southern Asia was the main driver of global progress, accounting for over 68 per cent of the global reduction in stunted children (a decrease of 20.6 million) and 55 per cent of the reduction in wasted children. This monumental shift was bolstered by a 6.1 per cent decline in the subregion’s under-5 population.

By contrast, nutritional progress in sub-Saharan Africa was challenged by a spike in the region’s under-5 population, which grew by 20.3 per cent or by 31.4 million children between 2012 and 2024. This rapid growth has largely offset improvements in stunting and wasting prevalence, underscoring the need for ambitious nutrition interventions to ensure that demographic pressures do not erode fragile gains.

Progress towards productive and sustainable agriculture is assessed through a composite set of indicators spanning the economic, environmental and social dimensions. In 2024, the status score stood at 3.3 out of 5, while the trend score reached 4.0 out of 5 over the 2015–2024 period – indicating movement but not at a pace sufficient to reach the target by 2030. While improvements were evident in most regions since 2015, sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia remain furthest from the target, with status scores well below global averages, reflecting structural constraints and unequal access to technology, investment and markets.

The data reveal a marked imbalance across the factors that measure productive and sustainable agriculture. Indicators related to environmental efficiency and resource management were generally closer to their desired performance levels, reflecting gains in areas such as input-use efficiency and water-resource management. By contrast, indicators measuring agricultural productivity and employment conditions continued to lag behind other dimensions – pointing to productivity growth and decent work for agricultural workers as entrenched challenges.

The share of countries affected by high food prices fell sharply from 51.2 per cent in 2023 to 15.3 per cent in 2024 – a level slightly below the 2015–2019 average. Lower prices for key agricultural inputs, particularly fertilizers, ample cereal supplies and increased sugar production drove the decline, more than offsetting higher shipping costs and rising prices for meats, butter and vegetable oils.

The improvement was far from universal, however. The share of LDCs facing moderately to abnormally high food prices fell only marginally from 31.7 per cent in 2023 to 31.6 per cent in 2024 and remained well above the 2015–2019 average of 18 per cent. Regional conflicts and drought in Southern Africa continued to drive prices higher. In sub-Saharan Africa, which comprises more than 70 per cent of the world’s LDCs, approximately 26 per cent of countries experienced moderately to abnormally high food prices, a situation that exacerbated pre-existing economic vulnerabilities, particularly due to the heavy reliance on food imports.