ASIA AND THE PACIFIC Regional overview of food security and nutrition 2021: Statistics and trends

This section reports on four global nutrition indicators: stunting, wasting and overweight in children under the age of five, and anaemia in women of reproductive age.

2.1 Stunting among children under five

Stunting (low height-for-age) reflects the effects of chronic malnutrition on child growth, with negative consequences for health and development. Across Asia and the Pacific 74.8 million children are stunted, amounting to half of the world’s total. Despite a reduction from 38 percent in 2000, nearly 23 percent of children in the region are still stunted. Oceania excluding Australia and New Zealand is the most affected subregion with 41.4 percent of children stunted, followed by Southern Asia (30.7 percent), South-eastern Asia (27.4 percent) and Eastern Asia (4.9 percent). However, Southern Asia has the highest number of children affected by stunting at 54.3 million. Ten countries in Asia and the Pacific have a “very high prevalence” of stunting according to the WHO criteria (>30 percent) – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, the Marshall Islands, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste. Another eight are considered to have a “high prevalence” of stunting (20–30 percent) according to WHO criteria (Bhutan, Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Viet Nam).