Famines kill far fewer people today than they did in the past, but remain a major threat

Famines are still a major global problem. From 2020 to 2023 alone, they caused over a million deaths.

Yet the long-term trend shows significant progress. In the late 1800s and the first half of the 1900s, it was common for famines to kill over 10 million people per decade. This was true as recently as the 1960s, when China’s Great Leap Forward became the deadliest famine in history.

But as you can see in the chart, that number has dropped sharply, to about one to two million per decade.

This improvement is even more striking given that the world’s population has grown substantially. Despite many more people living on Earth, far fewer die from famines than before.

This progress has resulted from various factors, including increased food production, poverty reduction, fewer conflicts, and more accountable governments.

Learn more about why fewer people die from famines today →

Where this page came from

This page was imported from Our World in Data. “Famines kill far fewer people today than they did in the past, but remain a major threat” by Bastian Herre, Veronika Samborska, published by Our World in Data under CC BY 4.0. Changed here: set as a page, its interactive charts shown as pictures. Data from third parties keeps its own licence.

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