- An analysis by the UN shows that every tenth person in the world is starving.
- In 2022, around 735 million children and adults worldwide were affected by various forms of hunger – significantly more than before the start of the corona crisis.
- Reasons for the increasing number of people suffering from hunger in recent years include conflicts, for example in Syria or Ukraine, as well as the consequences of climate change and the corona pandemic.
Legend:
Malnourished children in Ethiopia: In 2022 almost 282 million people in Africa suffered from hunger.
KEYSTONE/AP Photo/Brennan Linsley
The United Nations had actually set itself the goal that by 2030 no one in the world would have to suffer from hunger. The conclusion of the current report on food safety and nutrition is that this cannot be achieved with the current trend. The report was produced by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Children’s Fund Unicef, the World Food Program (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
In 2022, an average of 735 million adults and children worldwide were affected by various forms of hunger. Asia had the most people going hungry last year, at 401.6 million, followed by 281.6 million in Africa and 43.2 million in Latin America and the Caribbean.
In 2021, at 739 million people, there were almost as many as in 2022 and significantly more than before the start of the corona crisis. In 2019, the number was 613 million. Since then, the pandemic and the aftermath of Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine have made things worse.
600 million starving in 2030
In the spring, the FAO, the WFP and the European Union had already stated in another report that a good quarter of a billion people worldwide are starving, sometimes dramatically. UN Secretary-General António Guterres therefore called for “intensive and immediate efforts worldwide”. In the foreword of the new report, however, the heads of the five organizations now write that 600 million starving people must still be expected in 2030.
Other sobering figures show: 2.4 billion people, almost 30 percent of the world’s population, had no permanent access to food last year. In addition, 3.1 billion people (42 percent of the world’s population) are reported to be unable to afford a healthy diet in 2021. There is no information yet for 2022.