Impact

Key results

Global food insecurity remained unchanged for the second year in a row, but was still far above the levels before the COVID-19 pandemic. About 29.6 percent of the global population – 2.4 billion people – were moderately or severely food insecure in 2022.

New estimates of the prevalence of food insecurity for 2022 show no progress on food insecurity at the global level. Following a sharp increase from 2019 to 2020, the global prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity remained unchanged for the second year in a row, far above levels before the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, an estimated 29.6 percent of the global population – 2.4 billion people – were moderately or severely food insecure, meaning they did not have access to adequate food. This is still 391 million more people than in 2019, before the pandemic, and 745 million more people compared to 2015 when the 2030 Agenda was launched.

A comparison of food insecurity in rural, peri-urban and urban populations at the global and regional levels using the Degree of Urbanization (DEGURBA) classification (European Union, FAO, UN-Habitat, OECD and World Bank, 2021), a new international standard, shows that at the global level, food security improves as the degree of urbanization increases. Moderate or severe food insecurity affected 33.3 percent of adults living in rural areas in 2022 compared to 28.8 percent in peri-urban areas and 26 percent in urban areas. Food insecurity was more prevalent in rural areas than in urban areas in all regions except Oceania and Northern America and Europe.

Highlights

Elearning

Multimedia

Capacity development

Methodology

Tier: I

Data

Related links

External link