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UN Food Report Finds Healthy Diets Still Unaffordable for One in Three
SOFI 2026 records a third straight year of lower global hunger, but 2.69 billion people still could not afford a healthy diet in 2025.
The most useful line in the United Nations’ latest food report is not a recipe or a shopping list. It is a warning about access: a healthy diet can remain out of reach even when global hunger indicators improve. The 2026 edition of The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, produced by FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO, records a third consecutive year of lower global hunger while showing how uneven that progress remains.
For home cooks, that makes this more than a development story. It is a useful way to read food prices, availability and diet quality together—without confusing a global average with what a particular supermarket or household pays.
Global hunger fell, but food insecurity is still widespread
The report estimates that 7.8% of the world’s population faced hunger in 2025, down from 8.1% in 2024 and 8.6% in 2022. That is about 645 million people, nearly 14 million fewer than the year before and 43 million fewer than in 2022. The direction is encouraging, but the report stresses that the improvement is fragile and not sufficient to meet the 2030 goals.
A wider measure tells a more complicated story. About 2.1 billion people—25.8% of the global population—experienced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2025. In practical terms, that means people sometimes had to compromise on the quality or quantity of what they ate. The global share is lower than in 2024 and 2020, but it remains above pre-pandemic levels. Regional differences are large: the report puts the figure at 56.6% of Africa’s population, compared with 20.3% in Asia, 22.9% in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 8.7% in Northern America and Europe.
The cost of a healthy diet remains the central problem
This year’s report examines the minimum average expenditure needed to obtain locally available foods that meet energy and most nutrient requirements. It defines a healthy diet as adequate, balanced, diverse and moderate. In 2025, the global average cost rose to 4.28 purchasing-power-parity dollars per person per day, compared with 3.44 in 2021 and 2.94 in 2017.
That unit is important. A purchasing-power-parity figure is designed for international comparison; it is not a promise that a person will spend exactly 4.28 dollars at a checkout. Local wages, taxes, transport, seasonality and food traditions all change the real household calculation. The report’s headline affordability measure is still stark: 2.69 billion people, or 32.7% of the global population, could not afford a healthy diet in 2025. In Africa, the share was 66.6%.
The cost breakdown also explains why the issue cannot be solved by telling shoppers to make better choices. Animal-source foods, fruit and vegetables account for the largest parts of the cost, while starchy staples contribute relatively little. The report says post-farmgate activities account for 70–75% of what consumers pay, with processing, logistics and wholesale contributing as much as 40% of the total cost. Those figures point to supply chains, storage and market structure—not just household behaviour.
What cooks can take from the announcement
The report does not prescribe one menu for every country, and it does not claim that one ingredient is universally the cheapest or healthiest. Its practical value is the frame it gives home cooks: affordability, nutrition and food safety have to be considered together.
- Read global figures as context, not a personal price tag. Use local prices when comparing meals. The report’s international units help show scale, but they cannot replace a household budget or local nutrition advice.
- Look at the whole meal. A low-cost staple may be useful, but diet quality also depends on variety and balance. Compare the cost of a complete meal rather than judging one premium ingredient in isolation.
- Separate affordability from safety. A cheaper product is not automatically a better choice, and a higher price is not proof of safety. For product-specific risks, recalls and preparation questions, use the relevant national food-safety authority rather than the global report.
- Notice the role of waste and storage. The report highlights structural costs and losses across food systems. At home, buying quantities that can be stored and used safely is a sensible way to protect a food budget, but it cannot substitute for policies that make nutritious food affordable.
A cautious improvement, not a solved problem
The joint WHO news release says the next few years remain exposed to conflict, weather extremes and reduced humanitarian funding. Its projections also do not include every possible disruption, so they should not be read as a precise grocery-price forecast.
The useful news today is therefore two-sided. Food insecurity has moved in the right direction for a third year, and that shows progress is possible. At the same time, nearly one in three people still cannot afford a healthy diet, with the burden distributed very unevenly. For anyone planning meals, the honest conclusion is modest: use local information for local decisions, keep variety and safety in view, and do not mistake a global improvement for an affordable kitchen everywhere.