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Data

Malnutrition: Share of children who are wasted

What you should know about this indicator

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
Multiple sources compiled by World Bank (2024) – processed by Our World in Data
Last updated
May 20, 2024
Next expected update
May 2025
Date range
1983–2022
Unit
% of children under 5

Related research and writing

What is childhood wasting?

Hannah Ritchie

Explore charts that include this data

Child mortality vs. prevalence of child wasting

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

The World Development Indicators (WDI) is the primary World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially-recognized international sources. It presents the most current and accurate global development data available, and includes national, regional and global estimates.

Retrieved on
May 20, 2024
Retrieved from
https://datacatalog.worldbank.org/search/dataset/0037712/World-Development-Indicators
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 Bank's World Development Indicators (WDI).

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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 (2024). Data adapted from UNICEF, WHO, World Bank. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-children-with-a-weight-too-low-for-their-height-wasting [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:

Multiple sources compiled by World Bank (2024) – processed by Our World in Data

Full citation

Multiple sources compiled by World Bank (2024) – processed by Our World in Data. “Malnutrition: Share of children who are wasted” [dataset]. UNICEF, WHO, World Bank, “World Development Indicators” [original data]. Retrieved December 15, 2024 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-children-with-a-weight-too-low-for-their-height-wasting