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Latest Food Security Data – May 19, 2025
Conflict and insecurity, weather extremes, and economic shocks continue to drive acute food insecurity. According to the 2025 Global Report on Food Crises, acute hunger has grown in 2024 for the sixth consecutive year. Around 295 million people are now facing high levels of acute food insecurity, with the most people experiencing the most severe forms of acute food insecurity (IPC/CH5) and famine living in countries affected by conflicts.
Download the latest brief on rising food insecurity and World Bank responses
According to a special IPC snapshot published on May 12, the entire population of Gaza is now facing high levels of acute food insecurity, with half a million people (one in five) facing starvation. This marks a significant deterioration compared to the previous IPC analysis (released in October 2024) and the already dire conditions detected between 1 April - 10 May 2025.
Domestic food price inflation remains moderately high. Information from the latest month between January and April 2025 for which food price inflation data are available shows high inflation in many low- and middle-income countries, with inflation higher than 5% in 87.5% of low-income countries (8.6 percentage points higher since the last update on April 22, 2025), 50% of lower-middle-income countries (2.2 percentage points higher), 47% of upper-middle-income countries (no change), and 18.5% of high-income countries (0.6 percentage points higher). In real terms, food price inflation exceeded overall inflation in 61% of the 157 countries where data is available.
Since the last Update in April 22, the agricultural and export price indices closed 2% and 5% higher, respectively, and the cereal price index closed 5% lower. On a year-on-year basis, maize, wheat, and rice prices are 1%, 20%, and 30% lower, respectively. Maize prices are 17% higher, wheat prices 7% lower, and rice prices 3% higher than in January 2020 (See “pink sheet” data for agricultural commodity and food commodity prices indices, updated monthly.)
The April 2025 World Bank Commodity Markets Outlook reports that global commodity prices fell sharply in early April, ending a period of relative stability. The May 2025 AMIS Market Monitor reports that stable global markets for wheat, maize, rice, and soybeans, with adequate supplies and no short-term shortages expected.
A new report titled Strengthening Strategic Grain Reserves to Enhance Food Security, jointly published by the World Bank, the World Food Programme (WFP), and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), offers lessons learned from the management of strategic grain reserves—government-managed stockpiles of staple grains, providing guiding principles for policymakers and development practitioners. The findings are published in a blog post.