Rome, July 13: A report released by the United Nations raised the estimated number of people going "hungry" across the globe to 690 million. The numbers went up by 10 million in the past seven months, and by around 60 million since 2014, the study claimed. The outbreak of COVID-19 has further worsened the crisis.

The rapid environmental shocks due to climate change, along with economic slowdowns in various parts of the world, had already began worsening the hunger index since 2014. That was the year when the number of hungry people globally increased for the first time in several decades. Coronavirus Could Push 14 Million into Hunger in Latin America.

The pandemic this year further exacerbated the already worsening trends this year, the UN report titled 'The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World' said.

The study was co-authored by five UN-linked bodies: the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Apart from red-flagging the hunger crisis across the world, the report also marked concern over increasing obesity among adults and children -- which it attributed to the consumption of non-nutritious food.

Due to falling incomes, households are consuming food products which satisfy their hunger but lack nutritional value. The sub-par diets will cost "health and environmental consequences", the study warned.

As per the current trend, the resolve enacted by several countries across the world to eliminate hunger by 2030 is impossible to achieve, the report said. By the targeted year, the number of hungry people across the world could increase to 890 million, which is nearly 9.8 percent of the global population.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 13, 2020 08:47 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).