LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN Regional overview of food security and nutrition 2021: Statistics and trends

2.3 Overweight among children under five

In Latin America and the Caribbean, 7.5 percent of children under five years were overweight in 2020. This prevalence in the region is 2 percentage points above the world average and has been increasing over the last 20 years.

Of the subregions, South America has the greatest prevalence of overweight with 8.2 percent, followed by the Caribbean with 6.6 percent and Mesoamerica with 6.3 percent. In South America and the Caribbean, overweight in children under five years has risen in the last 20 years, while in Mesoamerica it has been decreasing since 2010. If this trend continues, Latin America and the Caribbean and each of its subregions would not be on track to achieve SDG 2 of maintaining overweight in children under five years below 3 percent in 2030.

According to estimates of overweight in children under five years in the region’s countries in 2020, Argentina, Barbados, Cuba, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago and Uruguay have the highest prevalence in the region, all being over 10 percent. In contrast, the lowest rates of overweight in children under five years are recorded in Haiti (3.7 percent), Suriname (4 percent) and Guatemala (5.1 percent).

In most of the region’s countries, overweight in children under five years has tended to increase. Between 2000 and 2020 the countries with the largest increases in prevalence were Ecuador (5.3 percentage points), Trinidad and Tobago (5.1 percentage points), Paraguay (4.8 percentage points) and Barbados (3.6 percentage points). Cuba, Guyana, Panama and Honduras all saw increases above 2 percentage points in the same period.

Within the region, only six countries have reduced the prevalence of overweight in children under five years between 2000 and 2020: Belize, Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru.