The 2026 Global Report on Food Crises confirmed famine in the Gaza Strip and in Sudan in 2025, marking the first dual confirmation since formal famine reporting began. The report, produced by a coalition of 18 humanitarian and development partners, found that acute food insecurity affected about 266 million people across 47 countries and territories that year.

The 22.9 percent of analyzed populations facing acute food insecurity in 2025 represented a marginal rise from 22.7 percent in 2024 and was nearly double the 11.3 percent recorded in 2016. The proportion has remained above 20 percent every year since 2020. The total number of people experiencing acute food insecurity grew from 108 million in 2016 to 265.7 million in 2025, after peaking at 281.6 million in 2023. The lower headline figure in 2025 compared with 2024 mainly reflects a reduction in the number of countries covered from 53 to 47 rather than a decline in needs.

Famine is the most extreme classification under the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system, defined as a situation where at least 20 percent of households face extreme food shortages, acute malnutrition affects more than 30 percent of the population, and the death rate from starvation or hunger-related causes exceeds two per 10,000 people per day. Six countries and territories had populations facing catastrophic Phase 5 conditions in 2025, totaling 1.4 million people, a more than ninefold increase since 2016.

In the Gaza Strip, 640,700 people, or 32 percent of its population, faced famine conditions. In Sudan, 637,200 people, equivalent to 1 percent of its population, faced famine conditions. South Sudan had 83,500 people in catastrophic conditions, followed by Yemen with 41,200, Haiti with 8,400 and Mali with 2,600. The risk of famine remained in other areas of the Gaza Strip, Sudan and South Sudan, with projections extending into 2026.

More than 39 million people in 32 countries were in Phase 4 emergency conditions in 2025. Conflict and violence were the primary drivers of acute food insecurity in 19 countries, affecting 147.4 million people, or more than half of those facing acute hunger globally. Weather extremes drove food insecurity in 16 countries, affecting 87.5 million people, and economic shocks were the primary driver in 12 countries, affecting 29.8 million.

An estimated 35.5 million children were acutely malnourished across 23 countries with nutrition crises in 2025, including just under 10 million with severe acute malnutrition and 25.7 million with moderate acute malnutrition. About 9.2 million pregnant and breastfeeding women were acutely malnourished across 21 countries with available data that year.

Humanitarian and development financing for areas facing food crises declined in 2025 to levels last seen in 2016 and 2017. The report concluded that without a sustained push to address structural drivers of hunger, the world's most fragile countries will continue to bear a disproportionate share of the global hunger burden into 2026.