Humanitarian needs in 2026: people in need, funding, displacement and hunger

This overview separates figures for 2026 (plans and appeals) from figures for end-2025 (what was measured last year). All numbers below were read on the cited pages; where a current figure could not be verified, we say so.

2026: needs and appeals

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) launched the 2026 Global Humanitarian Overview on 8 December 2025. According to OCHA's Global Humanitarian Overview 2026, 239 million people need assistance, the plans aim to reach 135 million of them for $33 billion, and a "hyper-prioritised" core of 87 million people needs $23 billion. As reported by the Associated Press, OCHA chief Tom Fletcher said the world spent $2.7 trillion on defence last year and OCHA was asking for "just over 1 percent of that".

The appeal is large but smaller than a year earlier. The same AP report says the 2025 appeal asked for $47 billion to reach 190 million people and received $15 billion, the lowest level in a decade. ALNAP puts the share of requirements met in 2025 at 35% for OCHA-managed appeals.

As of 17 October 2026, the plan list in OCHA's Financial Tracking Service shows 36 plans with a stated requirement, tagged as part of the Overview, whose revised requirements add up to about $35.1 billion (our own sum), above the $33 billion launched in December. We could not verify a current, whole-of-appeal funding percentage from an official page, so we do not give one.

End-2025: forced displacement

UNHCR's Global Trends report, launched in June 2026, covers the situation at the end of 2025. According to Africanews, citing AP, 117.8 million people were forcibly displaced: 68.7 million inside their own countries and 41.6 million refugees. This was the first fall in global forced displacement in a decade, attributed to returns in Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, many in fragile conditions. UNHCR's own statistics database for 2025 lists about 9.0 million asylum-seekers, 4.4 million returned refugees and 10.3 million internally displaced people who returned.

End-2025: food insecurity

The Global Report on Food Crises 2026, published on 24 April 2026, covers 2025. The FAO release and the WFP release report 266 million people in acute food insecurity in 47 countries and territories, about 23% of the population analysed. Famine was confirmed in 2025 in Gaza Governorate and parts of Sudan, the first time in two contexts in the same year, and 35.5 million children were acutely malnourished. The apparent decline from earlier peaks reflects weaker data (18 countries lacked comparable data), not real improvement, the release says.

What is and is not known

• The 239 million and $33 billion figures are 2026 planning numbers set in December 2025, not measured outcomes.
• Displacement and hunger figures describe end-2025; they will not match 2026 appeal numbers one to one.
• The current 2026 funding level was not verified.