Factsheet
This factsheet presents an up-to-date analysis of food poverty trends globally, regionally and nationally between 2000 and 2023, drawing on national household survey data across 121 economies. Food poverty is defined as the inability to afford the minimum cost of food required to meet basic nutritional needs, representing the most extreme form of monetary deprivation.
The analysis shows that while the global share of people living in food poverty declined steadily between 2000 and 2019, progress has reversed since 2020. By 2023, an estimated 571 million people were living in food poverty—42 million more than in 2019—reflecting the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, rising food prices and the war in Ukraine. Progress in reducing food poverty has also been consistently slower than reductions in extreme poverty over the past decade.