Although global hunger has continued its gradual recovery from the levels seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations warns that geopolitical conflicts and climate shocks could quickly reverse that progress.

According to the United Nations' 2026 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, roughly 7.8% of the global population faced hunger in 2025, representing 645 million people. That was down from 8.1% in 2023 and 8.6% in 2022, and marked the third straight year that global hunger has declined since it jumped from 7.5% in 2019 to 8.2% in 2020, and then to 8.6% in 2021. 

Recent gains in reducing hunger have been driven by expanded food assistance programs in Asia, and stronger food security policies in Latin America. However, while most regions saw at least some improvement over the past year, the report found that progress has been uneven, with recent conflicts in the Middle East and climate-related crises continuing to drive hunger in many low-income nations.

“We are in a current era where we have the highest number of conflicts and [they] are still increasing,” International Fund for Agricultural Development President Alvaro Lario told the Associated Press. “Whenever there is a conflict, also hunger, displacement, refugees increase.”

A previous analysis from the UN World Food Programme released in May 2026 estimated that nearly 45 million more people could fall into acute food insecurity or worse if the Iran war drags on, and if average oil prices return to above $100 a barrel. Climate shocks threaten to put even more pressure on food security, as an increasing number of regions fluctuate between extreme drought conditions and disastrous floods.

Read More: Climate Change Threatens the Future of Food Supply Chains

Hunger also remains a widespread issue in Africa, where one in every five people in 2025 were undernourished; the continent makes up nearly half of the world's hungry population. Comparatively, people in Asia made up just 6% of that population, while those in Latin America and the Caribbean represented 4.8%. By 2030, the UN projects that 56% of the world's population facing hunger will live in Africa.