In politics, humanitarian aid, and the social sciences, hunger is defined as a condition in which a person

does not have the physical or financial capability to eat sufficient food to meet basic nutritional needs for
a sustained period. In the field of hunger relief, the term hunger is used in a sense that goes beyond the
common desire for food that all humans experience, also known as an appetite. The most extreme form
of hunger, when malnutrition is widespread, and when people have started dying of starvation through
lack of access to sufficient, nutritious food, leads to a declaration of famine.[2]

The Hunger March sculptures in Copenhagen

Throughout history, portions of the world's population have often suffered sustained periods of hunger.
In many cases, hunger resulted from food supply disruptions caused by war, plagues, or adverse weather.
In the decades following World War II, technological progress and enhanced political cooperation
suggested it might be possible to substantially reduce the number of people suffering from hunger.
While progress was uneven, by 2015, the threat of extreme hunger had receded for a large portion of
the world's population. According to the FAO's 2023 The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the
World report, this positive trend had reversed from about 2017, when a gradual rise in number of people
suffering from chronic hunger became discernible. In 2020 and 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic,
there was a massive increase in the number of people suffering from undernourishment. A recovery
occurred in 2022 along with the economic rebound, though the impact on global food markets caused
by the invasion of Ukraine meant the reduction in world hunger was quite limited.[3]

While most of the world's people continue to live in Asia, much of the increase in hunger since 2017
occurred in Africa and South America. The FAO's 2017 report discussed three principal reasons for the
recent increase in hunger: climate, conflict, and economic slowdowns. The 2018 edition focused on
extreme weather as a primary driver of the increase in hunger, finding rising rates to be especially severe
in countries where agricultural systems were most sensitive to extreme weather variations. The 2019
SOFI report found a strong correlation between increases in hunger and countries that had suffered an
economic slowdown. The 2020 edition instead looked at the prospects of achieving the hunger related
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). It warned that if nothing was done to counter the adverse trends
of the past six years, the number of people suffering from chronic hunger could rise by over 150 million
by 2030. The 2023 report reported a sharp jump in hunger caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which
leveled off in 2022.