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Malnutrition: Share of children who are stunted [1]

['Hannah Ritchie', 'Pablo Rosado', 'Max Roser']

Date: 2024-04 

The World Health Organization (WHO) sets out global growth curves – these show the expected trajectory of a child’s growth from birth through to adulthood. Of course, we would not expect everyone to be exactly the same height – there is a range of factors, such as genetics, which influence our height and are not a reflection of poor health or malnutrition. These growth curves therefore span a range of heights.

We see these growth curves for boys and girls in the chart. The median growth curve is shown by the thick line. The ribbons around this median show the ‘acceptable’ range. This range is two standard deviations above and below the median.

A child whose height falls below the bottom of the ribbon – that is, two standard deviations below their expected height for their age – is defined as ‘stunted’.

In a population, the prevalence of stunting is defined as the share of children under five years old that fall two standard deviations below the expected height for their age.

To estimate the prevalence of stunting, researchers draw on household and demographic surveys, which include measurements of childhood growth, alongside official health data from governments that monitor child development.

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[1] Url: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-children-younger-than-5-who-suffer-from-stunting

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