Overview of World Hunger

For millions of people, the fight against hunger is a matter of life and death. 841 million people in the world do not have enough food to eat, including 153 million children under the age of 5 years. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations' estimates that 6 million children die each year as a result of hunger and malnutrition. There is no other natural or manmade disaster that compares to the magnitude of devastation caused by world hunger.


841 million people suffer from hunger, malnutrition and famine across the world; 550 million hungry people live in Asia and 170 million in sub-saharan Africa. In total, 95% of people experiencing hunger live in developing countries. However, hunger has recently grown in severity in countries like the United States and former Soviet Union countries, mainly as a result of poverty.


The Extent of the Problem

•40,000 children under age five die every day from hunger and preventable diseases. That's 24 children a minute; equal to three 747's crashing every hour, every day, all year.

•The loss of human life from hunger is greater than if an atomic bomb were to be dropped on a densely populated area every three days.

•One in every five people in the world is hungry.

•More people have died from hunger in the past two years that were killed in World War I and World War II combined.

•70% of childhood deaths are associated with malnutrition and preventable diseases.

•70% of people in Asia live in extreme poverty.
Causes of world hunger include political, economic, and environmental factors.