Chapter 2 Sustainable Development Goal 2.2: Malnutrition

2.2 Wasting among children under 5 years of age

Reducing and maintaining childhood wasting to less than 5 percent is the WHA global nutrition target for wasting (low weight for height). Wasting, like stunting, is a major health problem and, owing to its associated risks for morbidity, requires urgent attention from policymakers and programme implementers alike. Addressing wasting is critical because of the heightened risk of disease and death for children who are dangerously thin.

FIGURE 12.

Prevalence of wasting among children under 5 years of age in Asia and the Pacific by subregion (2022)

Note: Please refer to Annex IV for the country coverage of this report. In particular, Central Asia and Western Asia are not included.
Source: Based on UNICEF, WHO & World Bank. 2023. UNICEF-WHO-World Bank: Joint child malnutrition estimates - Levels and trends (2023 edition). [Cited 24 April 2023]. https://data.unicef.org/resources/jme-report-2023
Download: https://doi.org/10.4060/CC8228EN-fig12

In Figure 12 and Table 8, it can be gleaned that the region overall has more children under 5 years affected by wasting than the world average in 2022 – in fact double the percent of the world. Of the subregions, Southern Asia had the highest percent (14.3 percent), which is slightly higher than the regional percent of 13.6. This is followed by Oceania (excluding Australia and New Zealand) at 8.3 percent, South-eastern Asia (7.8 percent) and Eastern Asia, which had the lowest (1.5 percent).

TABLE 8.

Prevalence of wasting among children under 5 years of age (percent)

2022
World6.8
Asia and the Pacific13.6
Eastern Asia1.5
Oceania excluding Australia and New Zealand8.3
South-eastern Asia7.8
Southern Asia14.3
Note: Please refer to Annex IV for the country coverage of this report. In particular, Central Asia and Western Asia are not included.
Source: Based on UNICEF, WHO & World Bank. 2023. UNICEF-WHO-World Bank: Joint child malnutrition estimates - Levels and trends (2023 edition). [Cited 24 April 2023]. https://data.unicef.org/resources/jme-report-2023
FIGURE 13.

Prevalence of wasting among children under 5 years of age in Asia and the Pacific by country and subregion (latest year available from 2015 to 2022)

Note: Please refer to Annex IV for the country coverage of this report. In particular, Central Asia and Western Asia are not included.
Source: Based on UNICEF, WHO & World Bank. 2023. UNICEF-WHO-World Bank: Joint child malnutrition estimates - Levels and trends (2023 edition). [Cited 24 April 2023]. https://data.unicef.org/resources/jme-report-2023
Download: https://doi.org/10.4060/CC8228EN-fig13

Within the subregions, and looking at the latest data available (although not in the same year), countries that have registered high prevalences are: for Southern Asia – India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh; for Oceania (excluding Australia and New Zealand) – Solomon Islands and Fiji; and for South-eastern Asia – Indonesia, Malaysia and Cambodia. The lowest prevalences of wasting were observed in the Republic of Korea, Mongolia and Tonga (Figure 13).