Chapter 2 Sustainable Development Goal 2.2: Malnutrition

Key messages
  • Nearly 23 percent of children in the region are still stunted. Ten countries in the region have a “very high prevalence” of stunting, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria (>30 percent). Another eight have a “high prevalence” of stunting (20–30 percent).
  • The share of children under 5 years of age affected by wasting in Asia and the Pacific was 9.9 percent in 2020, higher than the global average of 6.7 percent.
  • The overall percentage of overweight children in the region was lower than the global average of 5.7 percent, but increased from 4.2 percent to 5 percent between 2000 and 2020.
  • The prevalence of anaemia in women aged 15 to 49 years in Asia and the Pacific was 32.9 percent in 2019. This is 1.3 percentage points lower than in 2000, indicating disappointingly slow progress during the past two decades.