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

Malnutrition: Share of children who are wasted

What you should know about this indicator

How is this data described by its producer?

Prevalence of wasting is the proportion of children under age 5 whose weight for height is more than two standard deviations below the median for the international reference population ages 0-59 months.

Limitations and exceptions:

Survey estimates come with levels of uncertainty due to both sampling error and non-sampling error (e.g., measurement technical error, recording error etc.,). None of the two sources of errors have been fully taken into account for deriving estimates neither at country nor at regional or worldwide levels. Surveys are carried out in a specific period of the year, usually over a few months. However, this indicator can be affected by seasonality, factors related to food availability (e.g., pre-harvest periods), disease (e.g.,rainy season and diarrhoea, malaria, etc.), and natural disasters and conflicts. Hence, country-year estimates may not necessarily be comparable over time. Consequently, only latest estimates are provided.

Source
Joint child Malnutrition Estimates (JME) - UNICEF, WHO, and World Bank (2026) – processed by Our World in Data
Last updated
February 27, 2026
Next expected update
February 2027
Date range
1983–2024
Unit
% of children under 5

Related research and writing

What is childhood wasting?

Hannah Ritchie

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

Joint child Malnutrition Estimates (JME) - UNICEF, WHO, and World Bank – World Development Indicators

The World Development Indicators (WDI) database, published by the World Bank, is a comprehensive collection of global development data, providing key economic, social, and environmental statistics. It includes over 1,500 indicators covering more than 200 countries and territories, with data spanning several decades.WDI serves as a vital resource for policymakers, researchers, businesses, and analysts seeking to understand global trends and make data-driven decisions. The database covers a wide range of topics, including economic growth, education, health, poverty, trade, energy, infrastructure, governance, and environmental sustainability.The indicators are sourced from reputable national and international agencies, ensuring high-quality, consistent, and comparable data. Users can access the database through interactive online tools, API services, and downloadable datasets, facilitating detailed analysis and visualization.WDI is also used for tracking progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other global development initiatives. By providing accessible and reliable statistics, it helps to inform policy discussions and strategies globally.Whether for academic research, policy planning, or economic analysis, the World Development Indicators database is an essential tool for understanding and addressing global development challenges.

Retrieved on
February 27, 2026
Retrieved from
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.STA.WAST.ZS
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.
UNICEF, WHO, World Bank: Joint child Malnutrition Estimates (JME). Aggregation is based on UNICEF, WHO, and the World Bank harmonized dataset (adjusted, comparable data) and methodology., UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), note: Aggregation is based on UNICEF, WHO, and the World Bank harmonized dataset (adjusted, comparable data) and methodology;
World Health Organization (WHO), note: Joint child Malnutrition Estimates (JME); Aggregation is based on UNICEF, WHO, and the World Bank harmonized dataset (adjusted, comparable data) and methodology;
World Bank (WB), note: Joint child Malnutrition Estimates (JME); Aggregation is based on UNICEF, WHO, and the World Bank harmonized dataset (adjusted, comparable data) and methodology. Indicator SH.STA.WAST.ZS (https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.STA.WAST.ZS). World Development Indicators - World Bank (2026). Accessed on 2026-02-27.

The World Development Indicators (WDI) database, published by the World Bank, is a comprehensive collection of global development data, providing key economic, social, and environmental statistics. It includes over 1,500 indicators covering more than 200 countries and territories, with data spanning several decades.WDI serves as a vital resource for policymakers, researchers, businesses, and analysts seeking to understand global trends and make data-driven decisions. The database covers a wide range of topics, including economic growth, education, health, poverty, trade, energy, infrastructure, governance, and environmental sustainability.The indicators are sourced from reputable national and international agencies, ensuring high-quality, consistent, and comparable data. Users can access the database through interactive online tools, API services, and downloadable datasets, facilitating detailed analysis and visualization.WDI is also used for tracking progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other global development initiatives. By providing accessible and reliable statistics, it helps to inform policy discussions and strategies globally.Whether for academic research, policy planning, or economic analysis, the World Development Indicators database is an essential tool for understanding and addressing global development challenges.

Retrieved on
February 27, 2026
Retrieved from
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.STA.WAST.ZS
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.
UNICEF, WHO, World Bank: Joint child Malnutrition Estimates (JME). Aggregation is based on UNICEF, WHO, and the World Bank harmonized dataset (adjusted, comparable data) and methodology., UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), note: Aggregation is based on UNICEF, WHO, and the World Bank harmonized dataset (adjusted, comparable data) and methodology;
World Health Organization (WHO), note: Joint child Malnutrition Estimates (JME); Aggregation is based on UNICEF, WHO, and the World Bank harmonized dataset (adjusted, comparable data) and methodology;
World Bank (WB), note: Joint child Malnutrition Estimates (JME); Aggregation is based on UNICEF, WHO, and the World Bank harmonized dataset (adjusted, comparable data) and methodology. Indicator SH.STA.WAST.ZS (https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.STA.WAST.ZS). World Development Indicators - World Bank (2026). Accessed on 2026-02-27.

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: Share of children who are wasted”. Our World in Data (2026). Data adapted from Joint child Malnutrition Estimates (JME) - UNICEF, WHO, and World Bank. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260304-094028/grapher/share-of-children-with-a-weight-too-low-for-their-height-wasting.html [online resource] (archived on March 4, 2026).

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:

Joint child Malnutrition Estimates (JME) - UNICEF, WHO, and World Bank (2026) – processed by Our World in Data

Full citation

Joint child Malnutrition Estimates (JME) - UNICEF, WHO, and World Bank (2026) – processed by Our World in Data. “Malnutrition: Share of children who are wasted” [dataset]. Joint child Malnutrition Estimates (JME) - UNICEF, WHO, and World Bank, “World Development Indicators 125” [original data]. Retrieved April 1, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260304-094028/grapher/share-of-children-with-a-weight-too-low-for-their-height-wasting.html (archived on March 4, 2026).

Download

Quick download

Download the data shown in this chart as a ZIP file containing a CSV file, metadata in JSON format, and a README. The CSV file can be opened in Excel, Google Sheets, and other data analysis tools.

Download full data

Includes all entities and time points

Download displayed data

Includes only the entities and time points currently visible in the chart

Data API

Use these URLs to programmatically access this chart's data and configure your requests with the options below. Our documentation provides more information on how to use the API, and you can find a few code examples below.

Data URL (CSV format)
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-children-with-a-weight-too-low-for-their-height-wasting.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false
Metadata URL (JSON format)
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-children-with-a-weight-too-low-for-their-height-wasting.metadata.json?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false

Code examples

Examples of how to load this data into different data analysis tools.

Excel / Google Sheets
=IMPORTDATA("https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-children-with-a-weight-too-low-for-their-height-wasting.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false")
Python with Pandas
import pandas as pd
import requests

# Fetch the data.
df = pd.read_csv("https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-children-with-a-weight-too-low-for-their-height-wasting.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false", storage_options = {'User-Agent': 'Our World In Data data fetch/1.0'})

# Fetch the metadata
metadata = requests.get("https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-children-with-a-weight-too-low-for-their-height-wasting.metadata.json?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false").json()
R
library(jsonlite)

# Fetch the data
df <- read.csv("https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-children-with-a-weight-too-low-for-their-height-wasting.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false")

# Fetch the metadata
metadata <- fromJSON("https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-children-with-a-weight-too-low-for-their-height-wasting.metadata.json?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false")
Stata
import delimited "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-children-with-a-weight-too-low-for-their-height-wasting.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false", encoding("utf-8") clear