Bangladesh, July 16 -- United Nations, July 16 (Xinhua/UNB) -- World hunger is on the rise in absolute number and more than 820 million people were hungry in 2018, a UN report said Monday.

After decades of steady decline, the trend in world hunger, as measured by the prevalence of undernourishment, reverted in 2015, said "The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2019" report launched at the UN headquarters in New York.

While the ratio remained largely unchanged in the past three years at slightly below 11 percent, the absolute number of people who suffer from hunger slowly increased, reaching 821.6 million in 2018, it said.

The 2018 figure compared with 811.7 million people in 2017, 796.5 million people in 2016 and 785.4 m...