Our World
in Data
Oxford Martin School logoUniversity of Oxford logoGlobal Change Data Lab logo
Data

Malnutrition: Number of children who are stunted

What you should know about this indicator

Rationale

Child growth is an internationally accepted outcome reflecting child nutritional status. Child stunting refers to a child who is too short for his or her age and is the result of chronic or recurrent malnutrition. Stunting is a contributing risk factor to child mortality and is also a marker of inequalities in human development. Stunted children fail to reach their physical and cognitive potential. Child stunting is one of the World Health Assembly nutrition target indicators. Child stunting is one of the indicators under Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators target 2.2

Definition

Prevalence of stunting (height-for-age <-2 standard deviation from the median of the World Health Organization (WHO) Child Growth Standards) among children under 5 years of age

Method of measurement

Methods and Guidance: WHO and UNICEF provide recommendations for data collection, analysis and reporting on anthropometric indicators in children under 5 years old. (Recommendations for data collection, analysis and reporting on anthropometric indicators in children under 5 years old. Geneva: World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 2019. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO. ) Analysis Tool To facilitate re-running of nutritional survey data based on standardized approach, WHO has developed an online tool to analyse child anthropometric data. The WHO Anthro Survey Analyzer aims to promote best practices on data collection, analyses and reporting of anthropometric indicators. It offers analysis for four indicators: length/height-for-age, weight-for-age, weight-for-length, weight-for-height and body mass index-for-age. (WHO Anthro Survey Analyser and other tools) Global Reporting The modelled estimates are the official source used for global reporting on this indicator. (Metadata: SDG 2.2.1)

Method of estimation

Data collection method UNICEF and WHO employ their existing networks to obtain data. WHO relies on the organization’s structure and an expanding network developed following the creation of the WHO Global Database on Child Growth and Malnutrition. For UNICEF, the cadre of dedicated data and monitoring specialists working at national, regional and international levels in 190 countries routinely provides technical support to produce child malnutrition estimates through surveys and administrative systems and analyses for improved programme planning. The World Bank Group provides estimates available through the Living Standard Measurement Surveys (LSMS). Method of computation National estimates from primary sources (e.g., from household surveys) used to generate the JME global estimates are based on standardized methodology using the WHO Child Growth Standards as described in “The UNICEF-WHO-World Bank Joint Child Malnutrition Estimates (JME) standard methodology” (The UNICEF-WHO-World Bank Joint Child Malnutrition Estimates (JME) standard methodology New York: the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization and the World Bank, 2024. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO. )and WHO Anthro Survey Analyser. The JME global estimates are generated using smoothing techniques and covariates applied to quality-assured national data to derive trends and up-to-date estimates. Worldwide and regional estimates are derived as the respective country averages weighted by the countries’ under-five population estimates (UNPD-WPP latest available edition) using annual JME global estimates for 205 countries. (The UNICEF-WHO-World Bank Joint Child Malnutrition Estimates (JME) standard methodology New York: the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization and the World Bank, 2024. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO. ) However, estimates are only presented in the cases where a country has input data. In line with WHO’s data principle to use transparent models and methods, all codes used to generate estimates for the latest round and prior rounds are openly available on WHO’s GitHub repository. (UNICEF-WHO-World Bank Joint Child Malnutrition Estimates- Stunting and Overweight Global Health Estimates. )

Malnutrition: Number of children who are stunted
Prevalence of stunting (height-for-age <-2 standard deviation from the median of the World Health Organization (WHO) Child Growth Standards) among children under 5 years of age
Source
World Health Organization - Global Health Observatory (2025) – processed by Our World in Data
Last updated
May 19, 2025
Next expected update
May 2026
Date range
1990–2024

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

The GHO data repository is WHO's gateway to health-related statistics for its 194 Member States. It provides access to over 1000 indicators on priority health topics including mortality and burden of diseases, the Millennium Development Goals (child nutrition, child health, maternal and reproductive health, immunization, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, neglected diseases, water and sanitation), non communicable diseases and risk factors, epidemic-prone diseases, health systems, environmental health, violence and injuries, equity among others.

Retrieved on
May 19, 2025
Retrieved from
https://www.who.int/data/gho
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
World Health Organization. 2025. Global Health Observatory data repository. http://www.who.int/gho/en/.

How we process data at Our World in Data

All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.

Read about our data pipeline

Reuse this work

  • All data produced by third-party providers and made available by Our World in Data are subject to the license terms from the original providers. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always cite them appropriately (see below). This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining and updating valuable data.
  • All data, visualizations, and code produced by Our World in Data are completely open access under the Creative Commons BY license. You have the permission to use, distribute, and reproduce these in any medium, provided the source and authors are credited.

Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Malnutrition: Number of children who are stunted”. Our World in Data (2025). Data adapted from World Health Organization. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/number-children-stunted-who [online resource]
How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

World Health Organization - Global Health Observatory (2025) – processed by Our World in Data

Full citation

World Health Organization - Global Health Observatory (2025) – processed by Our World in Data. “Malnutrition: Number of children who are stunted” [dataset]. World Health Organization, “Global Health Observatory” [original data]. Retrieved June 13, 2025 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/number-children-stunted-who