Food Waste Statistics in 2026: Global totals, country differences, and what the numbers actually show
Food waste is not a small housekeeping problem; the supplied data shows it as a large, measurable flow of material through homes, stores, restaurants, landfills, and recovery systems.
Table of contents
- Fast facts
- Global food waste statistics
- Where food waste happens
- Country-by-country comparisons
- United States food waste statistics
- UK food waste statistics
- What the figures suggest
Fast facts
- 1.05 billion tonnes of food were wasted globally in 2022 across retail, food service, and households (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024).
- That equals 19% of food available to consumers at retail, food service, and household levels (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024).
- Households alone accounted for 631 million tonnes of food waste in 2022, or 60% of total food waste (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024).
- Food service added 290 million tonnes, while retail added 131 million tonnes in 2022 (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024).
- The report estimated food waste for 233 countries or areas, with 249 in the broader M49 standard overall when areas without population estimates are included (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024).
Global food waste statistics
The broadest picture in the supplied data is simple: households dominate food waste, and the household problem is consistent enough across income groups that the differences are smaller than many people expect.
At a glance: the world wasted 1.05 billion tonnes of food in 2022, but the sector split is uneven. Households produced the largest share by far, while food service and retail made up the rest (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024).
That 1.05 billion tonnes is also only one part of the loss story. It sits on top of the estimated 13% of the world’s food lost in the supply chain from post-harvest up to but excluding retail (FAO food loss and food waste page). In other words, the data describes two different pressures at once: food that is lost before it reaches consumers and food that is wasted after it does.
The household share is especially important because it is large in absolute terms and large in relative terms.
- 631 million tonnes from households (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024).
- 290 million tonnes from food service (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024).
- 131 million tonnes from retail (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024).
That means household waste was more than twice food service waste and nearly five times retail waste in the same year.
Global breakdown by sector
| Sector | Food waste in 2022 | Share or context | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households | 631 million tonnes | 60% of total food waste | UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 |
| Food service | 290 million tonnes | Second-largest source | UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 |
| Retail | 131 million tonnes | Smallest of the three tracked consumer-side sectors | UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 |
| Total consumer-side waste | 1.05 billion tonnes | 19% of food available to consumers | UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 |
The per-capita measures help show how similar the problem looks across sector types when it is expressed per person.
- Household food waste averaged 79 kilograms per person per year globally in 2022 (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024).
- Food service waste averaged 36 kilograms per person per year globally in 2022 (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024).
- Retail food waste averaged 17 kilograms per person per year globally in 2022 (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024).
That spread is meaningful. Household waste is more than double food service waste on a per-person basis and more than four times retail waste.
Where food waste happens
The supplied statistics point to a pattern that matters for policy and for households: food waste is not concentrated in one place. It appears in homes, stores, restaurants, and disposal systems.
Households
Households are the biggest contributor in the UNEP dataset, and the per-capita figures suggest that this is not just a problem of large populations. The average household food waste was 79 kilograms per capita per year globally in 2022 (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024).
The country-level estimates in the annex show that household waste can vary, but not always in the direction people assume.
- High-income countries averaged 81 kilograms of household food waste per person per year (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024).
- Upper-middle-income countries averaged 88 kilograms per person per year (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024).
- Lower-middle-income countries averaged 86 kilograms per person per year (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024).
- Low-income countries used an extrapolated household average of 91 kilograms per person per year (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024).
The average household food waste across the three income groups with sufficient data coverage ranged only from 81 to 88 kilograms per person per year (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024). That 7-kilogram spread equals about 128 grams per person per week (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024).
That small range is one of the most striking parts of the dataset. The differences across income groups are real, but the gap is not large enough to suggest that food waste is simply a high-income-country problem.
Food service
Food service is the second-largest source in the supplied global data, with 290 million tonnes in 2022 (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024). On a per-capita basis, that works out to 36 kilograms per person per year globally (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024).
Compared with households, food service waste is much lower on a per-person basis. But the absolute volume remains very large because it is spread across restaurants, cafeterias, hotels, and other service settings.
Retail
Retail came in at 131 million tonnes in 2022, or 17 kilograms per person per year globally (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024). Retail is the smallest of the three tracked consumer-side sectors, but it still represents a substantial amount of food moving through store systems and into waste streams.
Country-by-country comparisons
The annex data is especially useful because it gives a simple country snapshot. It does not tell the whole story of national food systems, but it does reveal how household waste varies across places.
Selected countries and modeled household food waste
| Country or area | Modeled household food waste per capita | Household food waste estimate | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | 98 kilograms | 2,559,065 tonnes per year | UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 Annex 3 |
| New Zealand | 61 kilograms | 316,590 tonnes per year | UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 Annex 3 |
| Kazakhstan | 88 kilograms | 1,708,990 tonnes per year | UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 Annex 3 |
| Kyrgyzstan | 86 kilograms | 568,288 tonnes per year | UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 Annex 3 |
| Tajikistan | 86 kilograms | 852,861 tonnes per year | UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 Annex 3 |
| Turkmenistan | 88 kilograms | 566,433 tonnes per year | UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 Annex 3 |
| Uzbekistan | 86 kilograms | 2,968,299 tonnes per year | UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 Annex 3 |
| China | 76 kilograms | 108,667,369 tonnes per year | UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 Annex 3 |
| Japan | 60 kilograms | 7,398,006 tonnes per year | UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 Annex 3 |
| Mongolia | 18 kilograms | 60,364 tonnes per year | UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 Annex 3 |
| Republic of Korea | 95 kilograms | 4,921,086 tonnes per year | UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 Annex 3 |
A few patterns stand out.
- Australia’s modeled household waste of 98 kilograms per person per year is high relative to many of the other listed countries (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 Annex 3).
- Mongolia’s modeled household waste of 18 kilograms per person per year is much lower than the rest of the listed countries (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 Annex 3).
- China’s total estimate is very large because of population scale: 108,667,369 tonnes per year even at 76 kilograms per person (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 Annex 3).
- Japan’s total of 7,398,006 tonnes per year is also large in absolute terms despite a lower per-capita figure of 60 kilograms (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 Annex 3).
The main lesson is that total tonnes and per-capita kilograms answer different questions. Per-capita figures help compare behavior; total tonnes show the scale that systems must handle.
More country examples from Europe and Central Asia
The report also shows a cluster of mid-range values in parts of Europe and Central Asia.
- Belarus: 71 kilograms per capita, 674,104 tonnes per year (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 Annex 3).
- Bulgaria: 26 kilograms per capita, 176,280 tonnes per year (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 Annex 3).
- Czechia: 69 kilograms per capita, 723,810 tonnes per year (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 Annex 3).
- Hungary: 66 kilograms per capita, 658,020 tonnes per year (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 Annex 3).
- Poland: 60 kilograms per capita, 2,391,600 tonnes per year (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 Annex 3).
- Moldova: 71 kilograms per capita, 231,061 tonnes per year (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 Annex 3).
- Romania: 67 kilograms per capita, 1,323,991 tonnes per year (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 Annex 3).
- Russia: 33 kilograms per capita, 4,829,772 tonnes per year (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 Annex 3).
- Slovakia: 65 kilograms per capita, 366,600 tonnes per year (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 Annex 3).
- Ukraine: 69 kilograms per capita, 2,758,037 tonnes per year (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 Annex 3).
The spread here is useful because it shows how broad the national range can be even within one regional sample. Bulgaria’s 26 kilograms sits far below Ukraine’s 69 kilograms, while Russia’s lower per-capita estimate still translates into millions of tonnes because of scale (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 Annex 3).
United States food waste statistics
The U.S. data in the supplied statistics is especially strong because it covers generation, disposal, and management pathways.
Big number: EPA estimated 66,216,242 tons of wasted food were generated in the food retail, food service, and residential sectors in 2019 (US EPA Food: Material-Specific Data).
EPA also estimated an additional 40 million tons of wasted food was generated in food and beverage manufacturing and processing in 2019 (US EPA Food: Material-Specific Data). That matters because it broadens the picture beyond households and restaurants.
U.S. wasted food management in 2019
| Management pathway | Tons | Share | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Landfill | 39,621,902 | 59.84% | US EPA Food: Material-Specific Data |
| Controlled combustion | 9,646,263 | 14.57% | US EPA Food: Material-Specific Data |
| Sewer and wastewater treatment | 3,975,352 | 6.00% | US EPA Food: Material-Specific Data |
| Composting | 3,304,764 | 4.99% | US EPA Food: Material-Specific Data |
| Bio-based materials and biochemical processing | 2,335,988 | 3.53% | US EPA Food: Material-Specific Data |
| Animal feed | 1,516,771 | 2.29% | US EPA Food: Material-Specific Data |
| Donation | 5,135,293 | 7.76% | US EPA Food: Material-Specific Data |
| Land application | 141,371 | 0.21% | US EPA Food: Material-Specific Data |
| Anaerobic digestion | 538,539 | 0.81% | US EPA Food: Material-Specific Data |
The landfill share is the dominant figure here. EPA estimated 59.84% of wasted food management went to landfill in 2019 (US EPA Food: Material-Specific Data).
EPA’s methane-related statistic sharpens the environmental significance: wasted food was responsible for 58% of landfill methane emissions to the atmosphere in EPA’s analysis (US EPA Quantifying Methane Emissions from Landfilled Food Waste). EPA also says municipal solid waste landfills were the third-largest source of methane emissions from human activities in the United States (US EPA Quantifying Methane Emissions from Landfilled Food Waste).
That makes the disposal pathway matter as much as the generation number.
U.S. recycling and composting context
The supplied EPA figures also show how far recovery systems have moved, and how far they still have to go.
- EPA estimated that 28.1% of wasted food generation was managed through other food management pathways in 2018 (US EPA National Overview).
- EPA’s 2018 per-capita rate for recycling was 1.16 pounds per person per day (US EPA National Overview).
- EPA’s 2018 per-capita rate for composting was 0.42 pounds per person per day (US EPA National Overview).
- EPA’s 2018 per-capita rate for other food management was 0.30 pounds per person per day (US EPA National Overview).
- EPA estimated the food and other municipal solid waste composting rate at 4.1% in 2018 (US EPA National Overview).
- EPA estimated the food composting rate at 2.2% in 2000 (US EPA National Overview).
Those figures show movement, but not enough to outweigh the scale of generation. EPA estimated that about 68% of wasted food generated in 2018, or about 42.8 million tons, ended up in landfills or combustion facilities (US EPA Reducing Wasted Food At Home).
EPA also estimated that 31% of the overall U.S. food supply, or 133 billion pounds, is wasted each year (US EPA America’s Food Waste Problem). That is a separate but related scale estimate that helps explain why the issue keeps showing up in policy and household guidance.
UK food waste statistics
The UK figures in the dataset offer a clean national snapshot.
- Total food waste was estimated at 10.7 million tonnes in 2021 (WRAP data stories press release).
- 6.4 million tonnes came from households in 2021 (WRAP data stories press release).
- Household food waste accounted for 60% of total UK food waste in 2021 (WRAP data stories press release).
- WRAP’s 2024 household survey found self-reported food waste increased from 20.2% in November 2023 to 21% in June 2024 (WRAP Household Food Management Survey UK).
- WRAP says the average UK household of four throws away food worth about £1,000 per year (WRAP blog on reducing food waste at home).
- WRAP estimates household food waste generates 18 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, equal to 3% of the UK’s total carbon footprint (WRAP blog on reducing food waste at home).
The UK numbers are helpful because they connect household behavior to climate impact in a direct way. The 18 million tonnes of carbon dioxide estimate is the clearest example of that linkage in the supplied data (WRAP blog on reducing food waste at home).
What the figures suggest
The supplied statistics do not point to one silver bullet. They point to a few consistent realities.
- Households are the largest source of food waste globally. The UNEP data says households accounted for 631 million tonnes and 60% of total food waste in 2022 (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024).
- Per-capita household waste is surprisingly clustered. The income-group range of 81 to 88 kilograms per person per year is narrow enough to show that food waste is widespread rather than confined to one wealth bracket (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024).
- Disposal pathways matter. In the U.S., 59.84% of wasted food management went to landfill in 2019, and landfill methane is a major emissions issue (US EPA Food: Material-Specific Data; US EPA Quantifying Methane Emissions from Landfilled Food Waste).
- National totals and per-capita values tell different stories. China’s 108,667,369 tonnes per year is driven by scale, while Mongolia’s 18 kilograms per person shows a very different pattern at the household level (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 Annex 3).
- Food waste is already measurable in money and emissions. The UK’s average household of four throws away about £1,000 worth of food per year, and the associated emissions are estimated at 18 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (WRAP blog on reducing food waste at home).
For readers looking for the most useful headline from these food waste statistics, it is this: the problem is large, repeated across sectors, and not limited to any single country income level.
The numbers make that plain without needing any extra interpretation.