122 million more people worldwide are now experiencing hunger compared to 2019. The pandemic, as well as repeated weather shocks and conflicts such as the war in Ukraine, are the main reasons for this increase. Five specialized United Nations agencies have published the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report.
Between 691 and 783 million people in the world faced hunger in 2022. Considering the midrange (about 735 million), 122 million more people faced hunger in 2022 than in 2019, before the global pandemic. From 2021 to 2022, progress was made towards reducing hunger in Asia and Latin America. But hunger is still on the rise in Western Asia, the Caribbean and all subregions of Africa.
It is projected that almost 600 million people will be chronically undernourished in 2030. This points to the immense challenge of achieving the SDG target to eradicate
hunger, particularly in Africa.
About 29.6 per cent of the global population – 2.4 billion people – were moderately or severely food insecure in 2022, of which about 900 million were severely food insecure. More than 3.1 billion people in the world – or 42 per cent – were unable to afford a healthy diet.
in 2021.
Gender Gap in Food Insecurity
Worldwide, food insecurity disproportionately affects women and people living in rural areas. Moderate or severe food insecurity affected 33.3 per cent of adults living in rural areas in 2022 compared with 28.8 per cent in peri-urban areas and 26.0 per cent in urban areas.
The gender gap in food insecurity at the global level, which had widened in the wake of the pandemic, narrowed from 3.8 percentage points in 2021 to 2.4 percentage points in 2022.
Stunting, Wasting and Overweight
Worldwide in 2022, an estimated 148.1 million children under five years of age (22.3 per cent) were stunted, 45 million (6.8 per cent) were wasted, and 37 million (5.6 per cent) were overweight. The prevalence of stunting and wasting was higher in rural areas, while overweight was slightly more prevalent in urban areas.
Steady progress has been made in increasing exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life and reducing stunting among children under five years
of age, but the world is still not on track to achieve the 2030 targets. Children overweight and low birthweight have changed little. The Prevalence of wasting is
more than double the 2030 target.
Increasing urbanization, with almost seven in ten people projected to live in cities by 2050, is driving changes in agrifood systems across the rural–urban continuum. These changes represent both challenges and opportunities to ensure everyone has access to affordable healthy diets.
