The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2025
Addressing High Food Price Inflation for Food Security and Nutrition
The 2025 SOFI report from FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO examines how rising food prices are shaping access to healthy diets and driving food insecurity and malnutrition. Global hunger declined slightly for a second year, but the gains are modest and uneven. Africa and Western Asia continue to see hunger rise. High and persistent prices for nutritious foods are putting quality diets further out of reach, especially for children in low-income settings.
Key Findings
Child and Maternal Nutrition
Nutrition outcomes for children and women – some progress but more needed:
- Stunting: The prevalence fell to 23.2 percent in 2024, reducing the number of stunted children from 180.4 in 2012 to 150.2 million in 2024. However, the world is still not on track to meet the 2030 target.
- Wasting and overweight: Both remain largely unchanged compared to 2012, at 6.6 percent and 5.5 percent respectively in 2024.
- Breastfeeding: The percentage of infants under six months exclusively breastfed increased significantly, from 37.0 percent in 2012 to 47.8 percent in 2023, reflecting growing recognition of its health benefits
- Dietary diversity: Only one in three children (34%) aged 6–23 months meet minimum dietary diversity. About two in three women (65%) aged 15–49 years meet the minimum.
- Anaemia: The prevalence among women of reproductive age rose from 27.6 to 30.7 percent (2012–2023).
Hunger and Food Security
- An estimated 673 million people faced hunger in 2024, 8.3 percent of the global population. This is down from 8.5 percent in 2023.
- Hunger is rising in Africa, where more than one in five people are affected.
- About 2.3 billion people experienced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2024. That is 336 million more than in 2019, before the pandemic.
- 2.6 billion people could not afford a healthy diet in 2024. The global number has fallen since 2019, but affordability worsened in Africa and in many low-income and lower-middle-income countries (excluding India).
- If current trends continue, 512 million people could face hunger in 2030, nearly 60 percent of them in Africa.
Focus: Food Price Inflation
- Since 2020, food price inflation has consistently outpaced overall inflation. In January 2023, global food price inflation peaked at 13.6 percent, 5.1 percentage points above headline inflation (8.5 percent).
- Food price inflation was highest in low-income countries, peaking at 30 percent in May 2023.
- High prices may push families toward cheaper, ultra-processed foods with low nutritional value while fruits, vegetables and high-quality proteins remain expensive.
- New analysis shows a direct link between prices and acute malnutrition: a 10 percent increase in food prices is associated with a 2.7 to 4.3 percent rise in child wasting and a 4.8 to 6.1 percent rise in severe wasting among children under five.
What Needs to Happen
The report calls for coordinated government action to protect access to nutritious food and build resilience against future shocks:
- Targeted fiscal measures
Use time-bound tax relief or subsidies to lower the cost of nutritious foods for low-income households. Monitor whether savings reach consumers. - Stronger social protection
Scale up cash or in-kind transfers, vouchers, and school meal programmes. Adjust transfer values in high-inflation settings so support does not erode. - Invest in food systems for healthy diets
Put resources into agrifood research and development, storage, transport and market infrastructure to improve availability and affordability of fresh, nutrient-dense foods. - Align monetary and fiscal policy
Coordinate credible monetary policy with realistic fiscal planning to anchor inflation expectations and stabilize markets. - Improve data and information systems
Strengthen agricultural market information systems and nutrition data to guide timely, evidence-based decisions and reduce speculation. - Avoid blunt, distortionary tools
Use price controls and trade restrictions cautiously. Prioritize transparent, predictable approaches such as well-managed strategic reserves and open, well-functioning markets.
Our call to action
“Chronic undernutrition continues to affect over 150 million children under the age of five. At the same time, overweight and obesity are rising at alarming rates. At the heart of this crisis is a failure of food systems to deliver nutritious, safe, affordable and sustainable diets for children. We must invest in solutions that protect every child’s right to good nutrition.”
— Catherine Russell, UNICEF Executive Director
