EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2024: STATISTICS AND TRENDS

2.4 ANAEMIA AMONG WOMEN AGED 15 TO 49 YEARS

In 2019, the most recent year for which such data are available, the prevalence of anaemia among women aged 15 to 49 years was equivalent to 18.8 percent in the ECA region. This is 1.4 percentage points higher than in 2012, the baseline year for tracking the progress of this global nutrition target (FIGURE 13). The regional estimate has been below the global estimate since 2000. By subregion, the prevalence in 2019 was lower than the regional average in the EFTA countries and in the EU-27 and the United Kingdom, while it was higher in the other subregions. The highest estimate in 2019 was observed in the Caucasus (30.4 percent, above the global estimate of 29.9 percent), followed by the “Other” subgroup (Andorra, Israel and Türkiye) (28.4 percent) and Central Asia (28.1 percent). The prevalence increased from 2012 to 2019 in nearly all ECA subregions; it remained at the same level in the “Other” subgroup and declined in Central Asia.

The country-level data presented in FIGURE 14 show that just two countries in the ECA region made progress from 2012 to 2019 in reducing the prevalence of anaemia: Armenia, by a marginal 0.3 percentage points, and Uzbekistan, by 3.9 percentage points. The other ECA countries saw increases in the prevalence of anaemia during the same period. The ECA countries with values higher than the global estimate of 29.9 percent in 2019 were Kyrgyzstan (35.8 percent), Tajikistan (35.2 percent) and Azerbaijan (35.1 percent).