State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2026: Key Findings and India Highlights
The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2026, commonly known as the SOFI 2026 Report, was released on 21 July 2026. The report indicates that hunger and food insecurity declined globally during 2025, but the pace of improvement remains inadequate and unevenly distributed across countries and regions.
What is the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World Report?
The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World is the United Nations system’s principal annual assessment of:
- Global hunger and undernourishment
- Moderate and severe food insecurity
- Malnutrition in its different forms
- The cost and affordability of a healthy diet
- Progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 2: Zero Hunger
The 2026 edition particularly examines the rising cost of healthy diets and its implications for eliminating hunger, improving nutrition and achieving global food-security targets by 2030.
Who Publishes the SOFI Report?
The report is prepared jointly by five United Nations agencies:
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations — FAO
- International Fund for Agricultural Development — IFAD
- United Nations Children’s Fund — UNICEF
- World Food Programme — WFP
- World Health Organization — WHO
Together, these organisations provide updated global and regional estimates concerning hunger, food access, dietary affordability and nutrition outcomes.
Key Findings of the SOFI 2026 Report
Global Hunger Declined in 2025
An estimated 645 million people, representing 7.8 per cent of the world’s population, experienced hunger in 2025. This was nearly 14 million fewer than in 2024 and 43 million fewer than the recent peak recorded in 2022.
More Than Two Billion People Faced Food Insecurity
Approximately 2.1 billion people, or 25.8 per cent of the global population, experienced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2025. Although this marked an improvement over the previous year, the figure remains above pre-pandemic levels.
Progress Remains Uneven
The improvement was not uniform across the world. South America and Asia—particularly Southern Asia—recorded significant gains, while several parts of Africa and Western Asia continued to face high levels of hunger and food insecurity.
Women, children and rural populations remain especially vulnerable because of unequal access to income, productive resources, nutritious food and social protection.
The World is Off Track to Achieve Zero Hunger
Despite the recent decline in hunger, current progress is insufficient to meet SDG 2 by 2030. The report projects that around 520 million people may still face hunger in 2030 unless governments accelerate investment in food systems, agricultural infrastructure and targeted social-protection programmes.
Healthy Diets Remain Unaffordable
Hunger is only one part of the global nutrition crisis. Nearly one-third of the world’s population remains unable to afford a healthy diet. High expenses associated with storage, processing, transportation, energy and retail continue to raise the prices of nutritious foods such as fruits, vegetables and animal-source products.
India-Specific Findings
Undernourishment Has Declined Significantly
India has recorded substantial long-term progress in reducing undernourishment. The proportion of undernourished people declined from 21.1 per cent during 2004–06 to 9.8 per cent during 2023–25.
In absolute terms, the estimated number of undernourished Indians fell from 243.9 million to 142.5 million over this period.
Healthy Food is Becoming More Expensive
The cost of a healthy diet in India has increased by nearly 48 per cent since 2017, compared with an increase of approximately 32 per cent in the United States over the same period.
In 2025, a healthy diet in India cost an estimated $4.11 per person per day in purchasing-power-parity terms. The rising cost of nutritious food means that improvements in calorie availability do not necessarily translate into better diet quality.
More Than One-Third of Indians Cannot Afford a Healthy Diet
Around 520.1 million Indians, or 35.5 per cent of the population, were unable to afford a nutritionally adequate diet in 2025. Although this proportion declined from 59.8 per cent in 2017, it still means that more than one in every three Indians lacks regular economic access to healthy food.
Significance of the SOFI 2026 Report
The SOFI 2026 findings reveal a mixed picture. Global hunger has declined for three consecutive years, demonstrating that policy intervention can produce results. However, hundreds of millions of people remain undernourished, while billions continue to face insecure or inadequate access to food.
For India, the decline in undernourishment is an important achievement. Nevertheless, the growing cost of healthy food and the continued inability of a large section of the population to afford a balanced diet show that food security must be understood not merely as access to sufficient calories, but as access to safe, diverse and nutritious food.