The number of people affected by food insecurity has fallen by 78 million to 2.79 billion. This is one of the findings of the study ‘Global Food Poverty Gap 2026’, which is being presented today in the run-up to Harvest Festival (4 October) and World Food Day (16 October).
“This year’s findings from the ‘World Food Poverty Gap’ study make it clear that improvements are possible,” explains Lutz Depenbusch, Misereor’s expert on world food security and a development economist. “This is an encouraging sign for the fight against hunger and malnutrition, particularly in light of the deteriorations seen in previous years.” South Asia recorded the greatest improvement over the 2025 calculation period. The region is thus leaving behind the setbacks suffered during the COVID-19 crisis. In sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East and North Africa, too, food poverty has declined slightly following several years of deterioration.
However, from a global perspective, food insecurity remains at a high level. More than one in three people worldwide cannot afford a healthy diet. The total amount lacking for those affected amounts to 2.79 trillion US dollars. This means that each person is short of the equivalent of 1,000 US dollars per year, or 2.74 US dollars per day, to be able to afford healthy food. “The world actually produces enough wealth, yet billions remain excluded from it,” Depenbusch points out. As the calculations in the study show, the poverty gap of 2.79 trillion US dollars corresponds to just 1.31 per cent of global economic output.
Rising food prices are a key driver of food poverty. “The cost of a healthy diet rose by 46 per cent between 2017 and 2025,” reports Jonas Stehl, a development economist at the University of Göttingen. “Our calculations show that this has contributed significantly to the current extent of food poverty.” In the Middle East and North Africa in particular, the rise in prices for a healthy diet between 2017 and 2025 has contributed to the long-standing increase in food poverty. In South Asia, rising prices have almost entirely offset the effects of substantial income growth between 2017 and 2025.
“This highlights how important it is to cushion the impact of rising prices on people on low incomes,” concludes Lutz Depenbusch. For many of the hardest-hit countries, however, such income-support measures remain virtually unaffordable. What is therefore crucial is not only short-term aid, but structural improvements to benefit poorer countries, for example within the framework of ongoing UN processes on global debt and tax architecture.
According to Depenbusch, despite the improvements, it is not yet possible to speak of a turnaround at this stage. “The global food situation is currently under enormous pressure due to the war in the Persian Gulf and the looming El Niño climate phenomenon. Misereor’s partner organisations are already reporting crop failures, further rises in food prices and falling incomes. Even if these crises are temporary, they will set back the fight against food poverty once again unless additional measures are taken.”
About the study: Those who have to cut back on food often have no choice but to opt for cheap, filling foods. They lack the money for nutrient-rich but relatively expensive foods. Nutritional poverty therefore hinders children’s physical, cognitive and motor development and also leads to impairments in adults. Misereor, in collaboration with Göttingen-based researchers Dr Jonas Stehl and Prof. Dr Sebastian Vollmer, has calculated the extent of food poverty worldwide for the fourth time in 2026. The ‘Global Food Poverty Gap’ shows how much money people worldwide collectively lack to be able to afford a healthy diet. This ‘poverty gap’ provides insight into the global situation, which regions of the world are particularly affected, and in which countries people are missing out on a particularly large proportion of their income.
