The United Nations' tally for people around the world suffering from hunger will hit a new milestone this year: one billion, or fully one-sixth of the world's population.

The new data comes from the Food and Agriculture Organization, whose director-general believes hunger represents a grave threat to "world peace and security," the BBC reports:

The UN said almost all of the world's undernourished live in developing countries, with the most, some 642 million people, living in the Asia-Pacific region.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the next worst-hit region, the figure stands at 265 million.

Just 15 million people are left hungry in the developed world"

A combination of the global recession and rising food prices are largely to blame for the increase in world hunger, the UN says.

AFP/Getty Images