Discuss how many peoples are hungry in the world

 The scale of global hunger in 2024 and projected into 2025 remains a critical and deeply concerning humanitarian crisis, impacting hundreds of millions of people worldwide. While precise, real-time figures fluctuate due to ongoing crises and data collection challenges, recent reports from key international organizations like the United Nations, FAO, and WFP paint a stark picture of a worsening situation.

According to the 2025 Global Report on Food Crises, which retroactively assesses 2024, over 295 million people across 53 countries and territories faced acute hunger in 2024. This marks a significant increase of almost 14 million people compared to 2023, representing the sixth consecutive annual rise in acute food insecurity. Of particular alarm is the fact that the number of people experiencing catastrophic levels of hunger (IPC/CH Phase 5) more than doubled over the same period, reaching a record high of 1.9 million. These figures highlight a persistent and escalating crisis, with an acute food insecurity prevalence of 22.6 percent of the assessed population, remaining above 20 percent for the fifth consecutive year.

The World Food Programme's 2025 Global Outlook further underscores these dire statistics, indicating that as of November 2024, approximately 343 million people were identified as acutely food insecure across 74 countries where WFP operates and data is available. This represents a 10 percent increase from the previous year, nearing levels last seen during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The report emphasizes that despite some recent improvements in global food prices from their 2022 peaks, the overall outlook for 2025 suggests that hunger shocks are likely to persist, exacerbated by a projected significant reduction in humanitarian funding for food and nutrition crises.

The drivers behind this widespread hunger are multifaceted and interconnected. Conflict continues to be the primary catalyst, affecting around 140 million people in 20 countries and territories. Regions like Sudan, Gaza, Yemen, and Mali are particularly hard-hit, with famine confirmed in Sudan and considered imminent in Gaza due to sustained violence and severely restricted humanitarian access. Beyond conflict, economic shocks, including rampant inflation and currency devaluation, are driving hunger in numerous nations, pushing millions into poverty as they struggle to afford essential food. Even with a modest decline in some areas from 2023, the impact of these economic factors remains nearly double pre-COVID-19 levels. Furthermore, the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, such as floods and droughts, linked to climate change, consistently disrupt agricultural production and supply chains, pushing more communities into food insecurity. Forced displacement, with nearly 95 million forcibly displaced individuals living in countries facing food crises, also contributes significantly to the escalating numbers.

The situation is particularly dire in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, which are experiencing rising rates of undernourishment, child mortality, and child malnutrition due to poor diets, economic challenges, and the escalating impact of natural disasters. India, for instance, in the 2023 Global Hunger Index, ranked 111 out of 125 countries, indicating a "serious" level of hunger severity and a concerning increase in child wasting rates. Globally, projections suggest that nearly 670 million people (8% of the world population) could still be facing hunger by 2030, even if a global economic recovery is factored in. This indicates that the world is significantly off track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger by 2030, with some estimates suggesting it could take another 130 years to reach even low hunger levels if the current pace of progress continues. The lack of sufficient data in many countries further complicates the accurate tracking of progress against these critical goals. In essence, the global hunger crisis is not merely a temporary setback but a deepening, complex emergency driven by a convergence of geopolitical instability, economic vulnerabilities, and environmental degradation, demanding sustained and concerted global action.