EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2023: Statistics and Trends

3.3 PREVALENCE OF LOW BIRTHWEIGHT

The global prevalence of low birthweight declined at a slow pace from 2000 (16.6 percent) to 2019 (14.6 percent) and remained relatively stable in 2020 (FIGURE 20, TABLE 13). The regional trend seems to have followed the same slow pattern of decline. From 2010 to 2015, the prevalence of low birthweight remained stable in the ECA region and then continued its declining trend through 2020. However, the prevalence has always been about half the global estimate, including in 2020 (7.6 percent). The prevalence declined in all subregions of the ECA except the Caucasus and the Western Balkans, where it increased marginally from 2000 to 2020. The prevalence is higher than the regional average in the Caucasus (9.8 percent) and the “other” group of countries that includes Israel and Türkiye (12.4 percent), although all subregions have a prevalence lower than the global estimate.

FIGURE 21 shows a more detailed picture of the differences in the trends and levels among ECA countries. About 21 of the 51 ECA countries for which data are available have not reduced their prevalence of low birthweight since 2000. Among the countries that have reduced their prevalence of low birthweight, the largest improvement took place in Türkiye, where the prevalence decreased by 2.8 percentage points. Nevertheless, Türkiye (12.9 percent) remains among the countries with the highest prevalence (above 10 percent) in 2020, along with Azerbaijan (11 percent), Bulgaria (11.4 percent) and Greece (11.4 percent).