This flagship publication is part ofThe State of the Worldseries of the Food and Agriculture Organizationof the United Nations. Required citation: FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO. 2026.The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2026 – Understanding andaddressing the high cost of a healthy diet. Rome.https://doi.org/10.4060/cd8306en The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of anyopinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund forAgricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP) or the WorldHealth Organization (WHO) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, orconcerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whetheror not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP orWHO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. The designations employed and the presentation of material in the maps do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever onthe part of FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP or WHO concerning the legal or constitutional status of any country, territory or sea area, orconcerning the delimitation of frontiers. The terminology used to refer to countries, territories and areas as well as the representationof countries, territories and areas, including the delimitation of frontiers or boundaries, in this publication follow the institutional styleand practice of FAO as the lead publishing organization, and may be at variance with those used by IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO. All reasonable precautions have been taken by FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO to verify the information contained in thispublication. However, the published material is being distributed without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. Theresponsibility for the interpretation and use of the material lies with the reader. In no event shall FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHObe liable for damages arising from its use. ISSN 2663-8061(print)ISSN 2663-807X(online)ISBN 978-92-5-140461-4© FAO, 2026 Some rights reserved. This work is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution - 4.0 International licence(CC BY 4.0:https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.en). Under the terms of this licence, this work may be copied, redistributed and adapted, provided that The Work is appropriately cited.In any use of this work, there should be no suggestion that FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO endorses any specific organization,products or services. The use of the FAO logo is not permitted. If The Work is adapted, then it must be licensed under the sameor equivalent Creative Commons license. If a translation of this work is created, it must include the following disclaimer along withthe required citation: “This translation was not created by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO),International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Food Programme (WFP) orWorld Health Organization (WHO). FAO, IFAD, UNICEF and WHO are not responsible for the content or accuracy of this translation.The original English edition shall be the authoritative edition.” Any dispute arising under this licence that cannot be settled amicably shall be referred to arbitration in accordance with theArbitration Rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). The parties shall be bound by anyarbitration award rendered as a result of such arbitration as the final adjudication of such a dispute. Third-party materials.Users wishing to reuse material from this work that is attributed to a third party, such as tables, figures orimages, are responsible for determining whether permission is needed for that reuse and for obtaining permission from the copyrightholder. The risk of claims resulting from infringement of any third-party-owned component in the work rests solely with the user. FAO photographs.FAO photographs that may appear in this work are not subject to the above-mentioned Creative Commonslicence. Queries for the use of any FAO photographs should be submitted to:photo-library@fao.org. Sales, rights and licensing.FAO information products are available on the FAO website (www.fao.org/publications) and printcopies can be purchased through the distributors listed there. For general enquiries about FAO publications please contact:publications-sales@fao.org. Queries regarding rights and licensing of publications should be submitted to:copyright@fao.org. In preparing this publication, the author(s) used Copilot, Gemini, Claude AI and Perplexity to assist with literature review.The content of this publication has been thoroughly