The causes of hunger are many and complex, but almost all relate to poverty in some way. For example, in a drought, rich people have money to buy food, so they don't starve. That is why developed countries like the United States, France or New Zealand don't have severe famines - their governments and people can afford to feed themselves, even when their land can't produce food.

So, hunger and starvation are related to poverty
- but what causes that?

Usually many causes contribute to a particular family's or country's poverty. That's why poverty is so hard to fight - if you focus on just one cause, the others will still have their effect. To make things harder, the different causes are often interrelated - that is, they contribute to each other.

This list summarises some of the main causes of poverty,
in no particular order.