For every five plates of food served around the world, about one ends up in the trash. This represents more than a billion tonnes of food per year.
Meanwhile, 645 million people, or about one in 13 people worldwide, suffered from hunger in 2025, according to the UN.
This gap is at the center of World Food Day on October 16, the annual UN celebration marking the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 1945. This year’s theme, “Innovate today, feed tomorrow,” calls for food systems that feed more people and waste less.
In this visual explainer, Al Jazeera looks at world hunger, which countries waste the most food, and simple ways to waste less at home.
Hunger slowly diminishes
Global hunger has declined for the third year in a row, but remains higher than levels seen before the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the United Nations’ annual report on the state of food security and nutrition in the world, about 645 million people, or 7.8 percent of the world’s population, faced hunger in 2025. This figure is down from the rate of 8.1 percent in 2024 and the peak of 8.6 percent in 2022, but it is still about 61 million more people than in 2025. 2019.
Where are people most hungry?
Africa has more hungry people than any other region.
By 2025, an estimated 309 million people in Africa would be undernourished. This represents one in five people on the continent and almost half of the world’s hungry.
For comparison, 292 million people in Asia (6 percent of the population) and 32 million in Latin America and the Caribbean (4.8 percent) were undernourished.
The Global Hunger Index 2026 shows a similar trend at the national level. The index ranks countries out of 100, combining undernourishment with stunting, wasting and child mortality. Scores of 35 or more are considered “alarming.”
Hunger is considered alarming in eight countries, including seven in Africa. Somalia has the worst score among the 122 countries ranked, followed by the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad and Madagascar.
Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi and Yemen were also classified as alarming countries, but conflicts and data gaps prevented the index from calculating their scores.
At the same time, much of the food produced around the world never makes it onto plates.
How much food is wasted each year?
Food is lost and wasted every step of the way, from farm to table.
According to the FAO, about 13 percent of food produced globally is lost after harvest and before reaching stores, spoiling during storage, transport or processing. Fruits and vegetables suffer the greatest losses.
Food lost before reaching stores accounts for more than $400 billion a year, according to the FAO.
Stores, restaurants and households then throw away almost a fifth of the food available to consumers, or around 1.05 billion tonnes in 2022, according to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). This is equivalent to 52.5 million trucks, each carrying 20 tonnes.
Households make up the majority, 60 percent, followed by restaurants and other food services with 28 percent and stores with 12 percent.
How to reduce food waste at home
Most food waste occurs at home, meaning households can make a real difference. Here are some simple steps recommended by food waste campaigners and UN agencies:
- Plan before you shop: Check what you already have, plan your meals for the week, and shop with a list to avoid buying more than you need.
- Understanding date labels: Best before dates are about safety, but best before dates are about quality. Foods are often still safe to eat after their expiration date.
- Store food correctly: Keep your refrigerator at 5°C (41°F) or lower and store fruits and vegetables where they last longest. Bananas, for example, accelerate the ripening of other nearby fruits.
- Use the freezer: Bread, ready meals, meat and many fruits and vegetables can be frozen before leaving.
- Cook the right amount: Measuring portions, especially for rice and pasta, helps reduce discarded leftovers.
- Eat the oldest food first: Move older items to the front of the refrigerator and cupboard so they are used before newer ones.
- Use leftovers and scraps: Turn leftovers into new meals and use vegetable peels and stems in soups and stocks.
- Compost what you can’t eat: Composting inedible parts such as peels and eggshells keeps them from ending up in landfills, where rotting food releases methane.
Which country wastes the most?
On average, each person in the world wastes about 132 kg (291 pounds) of food per year, or about the weight of two adults. Of this total, 79 kg (174 pounds) were thrown away at home.
But the amount varies considerably. Hotter countries tend to waste more at home, says UNEP, perhaps due to more fresh produce and less refrigeration.
The Maldives wastes the most food, with each person throwing away about 260 kg (573 pounds) a year, about twice the global average. This is followed by Syria, the Dominican Republic, Seychelles, Mexico and Tunisia, each wasting more than 210 kg (463 pounds) per person, according to UN estimates.
Spain recorded some of the lowest levels, at around 39 kg (86 pounds) or less per person.
How much does food waste cost?
Food loss and waste costs the global economy more than $1 trillion a year, according to the UN.
To put that into perspective, what else could $1 trillion buy?
Use the + buttons to add items to your cart and see how money would be spent across 35 categories.
Throwing away food also wastes the money, land and energy needed to produce it.
About 1.4 billion hectares (3.5 billion acres) of land, or 28 percent of the world’s agricultural land, is used to grow food that is never eaten. This is an area larger than Canada.
Food loss and waste also generates about 8 to 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, including methane released by rotting food in landfills.
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