Africa is now home to nearly half of the world’s chronically hungry people, according to a new UN report — and the numbers are still rising.
Of the 673 million people who experienced hunger globally in 2024, 307 million were in Africa, accounting for 46% of the world’s total. That’s more than one in five people on the continent, and a worsening trend compared to two decades ago.
The report also warns that Africa could account for nearly 60% of the world’s hungry by 2030 if current trends persist.
Despite a slight global decline in hunger for the third year running, Africa’s food security crisis is intensifying, driven by conflict, climate shocks, inflation, and sluggish agricultural productivity that isn’t keeping pace with population growth.
“If conflict continues to grow… and debt stress continues to increase, the numbers will increase again,” said Maximo Torero, chief economist at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, during the ongoing UN Food Systems Summit in Ethiopia.
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In a video message to the summit, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that “conflict continues to drive hunger from Gaza to Sudan and beyond,” adding that food insecurity fuels further instability.
By contrast, regions like South America and Southern Asia made progress. Hunger rates in South America dropped to 3.8% in 2024, down from 4.2%, aided by improved farming and social programmes. Southern Asia’s rate also fell from 12.2% to 11%, largely due to new data from India showing better access to healthy diets.
The global hunger rate in 2024 was 8.2%, slightly down from 8.5% in 2023, according to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, jointly released by five UN agencies.
However, the 2024 global figures remain above pre-pandemic levels.
Though the number of people globally unable to afford a healthy diet declined from 2.76 billion in 2019 to 2.6 billion in 2024, the report paints a mixed picture overall. It also notes that adult obesity rose to nearly 16% in 2022, up from 12% in 2012.