The number of hungry people worldwide is expected to drop significantly this year, in part because prices of grain and vegetable oil are declining.
USDA’s Economic Research Service, which tracks international food security, estimates that 19% of the population, or 824.6 million people, will be unable to get the minimum necessary calories this year in 83 lower-income countries. That would be a 27.5% decrease, or 313 million, from 2023.
Exceptions to the good news are due largely to local food inflation. Food insecurity is expected to worsen in Syria, Iran, Laos, Egypt, Gambia, Moldova, Liberia, Bangladesh and Haiti. Haiti faces both food and fuel shortages.
The ERS report is based on country-level commodity prices as well as macroecnomic and international commodity price projections.
ERS estimates that food insecurity will decline by 66.7% to 274.6 million people by 2034 in the 83 countries in its assessment.
