Which countries waste the most food, and how to reduce waste at home

For every five plates of food served around the world, roughly one ends up in the bin. That adds up to more than a billion tonnes of food a year.Meanwhile, 645 million people, about one in 13 of the world’s population, went hungry in 2025, according to the UN.That gap is the focus of World Food Day on October 16, the annual UN observance marking the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 1945. This year’s theme, “Innovate today, nourish tomorrow”, calls for food systems that feed more people and waste less.In this visual explainer, Al Jazeera looks at global hunger, which countries waste the most food and simple ways to waste less at home.Hunger is falling, slowlyGlobal hunger has fallen for a third year in a row, but it remains above levels seen before the COVID-19 pandemic.According to the UN’s annual State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, an estimated 645 million people, or 7.8 percent of the world’s population, faced hunger in 2025. That is down from 8.1 percent in 2024 and a peak of 8.6 percent in 2022, but still about 61 million more people than in 2019.[Al Jazeera]Where are people the most hungry?Africa has more hungry people than any o...