Chapter 2 Sustainable Development Target 2.2: Malnutrition

This section reports on four global nutrition indicators: stunting, wasting and overweight in children under five years of age and anaemia in women aged 15 to 49 years.

2.1 STUNTING AMONG CHILDREN UNDER FIVE YEARS OF AGE

The prevalence of stunting among children under five years of age in the ECA region was 4.9 percent in 2022, with a declining trend seen since 2000, when it was 10.8 percent (FIGURE 8). In all subregions of the ECA region, the prevalence of stunting declined continuously from 2012 to 2022. Both in the region as a whole and in each subregion, the prevalence of stunting in 2022 was below the global estimate of 22.3 percent. However, stunting prevalence varies across subregions and is highest in the Caucasus (10.3 percent). The prevalence is above the regional average in all subregions except for the EFTA countries (2.5 percent) and EU-27 and the United Kingdom (3.2 percent).

FIGURE 8

Prevalence of stunting among children under five years of age in Europe and Central Asia by subregion

SOURCE: Based on UNICEF, WHO & World Bank. 2023. Levels and trends in child malnutrition. UNICEF / WHO / World Bank Group Joint Child Malnutrition Estimates – Key findings of the 2023 edition. New York, USA, UNICEF; Geneva, Switzerland, WHO and Washington DC, World Bank. https://data.unicef.org/resources/jme-report-2023
Download: https://doi.org/10.4060/cd4739en-fig08

During the past two decades, most countries in the ECA region have seen significant progress in reducing child stunting. From 2012 to 2022, stunting rates increased marginally only in high-income countries such as Estonia, Germany, Greece, Netherlands (Kingdom of the) and Poland. However, these countries have among the lowest prevalence of stunting in the region. The largest reductions in the prevalence of stunting were recorded in Albania (by 8.1 percentage points) and Tajikistan (by 12.6 percentage points). Despite substantial progress, some countries in Central Asia, the Caucasus and CIS Europe and Ukraine have a prevalence of stunting between 10 and 20 percent, which represents a medium level of public health significance. These countries are Azerbaijan (13.3 percent), Tajikistan (13.1 percent), Ukraine (12.3 percent) and Kyrgyzstan (10.3 percent). The prevalence of stunting in 2022 is considerably lower than the global estimate in all countries of the ECA region.