Global hunger declined for a third consecutive year in 2025, with improvements recorded across every continent, although mounting risks from climate shocks and trade disruption could threaten further progress, a United Nations report said.

Progress and Challenges

Around 645 million people, or 7.8% of the world’s population, experienced hunger last year, down from 8.1% in 2024 and 8.6% in 2022, according to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, jointly prepared by five U.N. agencies.

Progress was driven largely by gains in Asia, particularly India, as well as Latin America and the Caribbean. Some African countries also began to reverse years of deterioration, though the continent had the world’s largest undernourished population in 2025, with 309 million people affected, one in five Africans.

Global hunger is projected to keep falling by 2030, according to the U.N. experts. However, geopolitical tensions and weather disruptions pose significant threats to global food systems.

Regional Improvements

Much of the improvement in Asia has been concentrated in India, home to nearly one-fifth of the world’s population, where hunger has fallen below 10%, helped by a combination of targeted welfare programmes and rising agricultural productivity.

Elsewhere, several African countries including Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Senegal, and Zambia have also shown signs of progress, while the Dominican Republic is no longer classified on the global hunger map.

Despite progress against hunger, child malnutrition remains stubbornly high and anaemia among women is worsening, the report said, highlighting that adult obesity has also risen steadily.

Access to nutritious food remains a major challenge. The report estimates that 2.69 billion people cannot afford a healthy diet, which it calculated would cost an average of $4.28 a day in purchasing-power-parity terms.

Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.