Food Security and Hunger

topic

Hunger is the most visible indicator of poverty. Every one of us needs food to stay alive and healthy, and families will almost always prioritise food over other expenses. So when they can’t afford to eat, you know they are in crisis. Hunger is an umbrella term used to mean a number of different things. This page explains the definitions and gives you the latest real-time data on who is experiencing which types of hunger and where they live.

Text by
Data visualisations by
This content is 2 years, 6 months old and is no longer being updated.

Key numbers

  • On 04 Sep 2024 there were 487 million people with insufficient food consumption – a -1.3% change in the last month.
  • 188 million people are in food crisis or worse (IPC/CH phase 3 or higher). 1195 thousand people face famine (IPC/CH phase 5)

How many people are hungry and where do they live?

Someone is undernourished if they are not able to acquire enough food to meet the daily minimum dietary energy requirements, over a period of one year. Over time, this makes it much harder to lead a normal, healthy life or develop properly.

Where do people not have enough food?