Ghana recorded 12.5 million food insecure people in the third quarter of 2025, representing 38.1 percent of the population, down from 41.1 percent in the second quarter, according to the latest Quarterly Food Insecurity Report released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) on Tuesday.
The report shows that food insecurity declined by three percentage points between the second and third quarters of 2025, with approximately 900,000 people exiting food insecurity during that period. However, severe food insecurity dropped only marginally from 5.1 percent in the second quarter to 4.6 percent in the third quarter.
Government Statistician Professor Alhassan Iddrisu told a press briefing on Tuesday that while the numbers show progress, significant vulnerabilities remain, particularly among female headed households, rural populations, and families with children.
The report, which covers data from the first quarter of 2024 through the third quarter of 2025, revealed that food insecurity peaked at 13.4 million people in the second quarter of 2025 before declining to 12.5 million in the third quarter. This remains significantly higher than the 11.2 million recorded in the first quarter of 2024.
Gender disparities remained pronounced throughout the reporting period. Moderate food insecurity among female headed households reached 44.1 percent in the first half of 2025, compared with 38.7 percent among male headed households. By the third quarter, the gap between male and female headed households had widened to 6.2 percentage points.
Rural populations experienced higher food insecurity rates than urban areas. Nationally, about 53 percent of households reported worrying about food availability in the third quarter of 2025, with rural areas recording 60 percent compared with 48 percent in urban areas.
Regional disparities showed extreme variation. The Upper East Region recorded the highest food insecurity prevalence at 55.9 percent in the third quarter of 2025, while the Oti Region recorded the lowest at 18.4 percent, creating a gap of 37.5 percentage points between best and worst performing regions.
The Volta Region recorded the highest food insecurity among households with both elderly members and children at 52.3 percent in the third quarter of 2025.
The report highlighted a growing triple burden of vulnerability. The number of persons who were simultaneously food insecure, multidimensionally poor, and unemployed increased from 208,064 in the second quarter to 227,519 in the third quarter of 2025, representing a 9.4 percent increase.
Education emerged as a protective factor against food insecurity. Households headed by individuals with no education recorded food insecurity rates of about 50 percent in the second and third quarters of 2025, while those headed by persons with tertiary education recorded the lowest levels at around 15 percent.
Child nutrition outcomes showed close links to household food insecurity. Nationally, households with malnourished children recorded an average food insecurity prevalence of about 44 percent. The situation was most severe in rural female headed households with underweight children, where food insecurity exceeded 80 percent in the third quarter of 2025.
Iddrisu emphasized that food insecurity affects not only household welfare but also child health, labour productivity, business confidence, and national development. He called for targeted, data driven interventions to address the challenge.
The Government Statistician urged stakeholders including policymakers, businesses, civil society, development partners, researchers, and communities to use the data to guide interventions toward achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2, which aims for zero hunger by 2030.
Iddrisu specifically recommended strengthening community nutrition and livelihood programmes, sustaining regular monitoring systems, and supporting livelihood diversification and affordable nutrition initiatives, particularly in high burden regions and vulnerable households.
He stressed the need for region specific interventions rather than one size fits all approaches, noting that food insecurity in Ghana is deeply spatial and not evenly spread across the country.
The Ghana Statistical Service uses the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES), which is aligned with Sustainable Development Goal indicator 2.1.2 and allows for international comparison. The data comes from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey.
Compared with 2022, Ghana has seen nearly 3.7 million people exit food insecurity. However, Iddrisu described the current figure of 12.5 million as a crisis level concern requiring urgent national attention to reduce to the barest minimum.
The report noted that food insecurity in Ghana remains volatile and unevenly distributed, responding to economic conditions, seasonal patterns, and food price movements. Despite improved macroeconomic performance, the benefits have not been evenly shared across the population.
