In 2021, a record 193 million people were acutely food insecure and in need of urgent assistance in 53 countries and territories, an increase of nearly 40 million people from the previous high reached in 2020, a report from the World Food Programme finds. According to the 2002 Global Report on Food Crises (277 pages, PDF), the number of people in “crisis” or worse conditions nearly doubled between 2016 and 2021, from 94 million to almost 180 million. In 2021, 40 million people in 36 countries were facing “emergency” or worse conditions, including 570,000 people—four times the number observed in 2020—facing “catastrophe” conditions of starvation and death in Ethiopia, South Sudan, southern Madagascar, and Yemen. In 2021, there were three primary drivers of food crises: conflict/insecurity in 24 countries and territories where 139.1 million people faced “crisis” or worse conditions, economic shocks in 21 countries where 30.2 million people faced those conditions, and extreme weather in eight countries where 23.5 million people were affected. The outlook for global acute food insecurity in 2022 is expected to deteriorate further, as the war in Ukraine is likely to exacerbate the already severe forecasts.