According to the report, an estimated one in every five Africans – or 20% of the continent's population – experienced hunger in 2025. By comparison, hunger affected 6% of Asia's population and 4.8% of people in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Africa is now home to the largest number of hungry people in the world, with 309 million people facing hunger in 2025, overtaking Asia for the first time, according to the latest United Nations report on global food security.
The 2026 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, jointly published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), UNICEF, World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO), paints a mixed picture for the continent.
Estimates show that 7.8% of the global population, or roughly 645 million people, faced hunger in 2025. This is down from 8.1% in 2024 and 8.6 per cent in 2022, or nearly 14 million fewer people than in 2024 and 43 million fewer compared to 2022.
While hunger levels in Africa showed signs of stabilising after years of deterioration, the continent remains the world's most food-insecure region and is expected to bear the greatest burden of hunger by the end of the decade.
