Bangladesh vs China: Malnutrition: Number of children who are underweight
Malnutrition: Number of children who are underweight over time
- Bangladesh
- China
How they compare
Bangladesh currently reports 3.54 million underweight children against 2.15 million underweight children in China, a difference of 1.38 million underweight children.
That makes Bangladesh's figure about 1.6 times China's.
The two have swapped places 1 time across 8 shared years of data; in 1990 it was China ahead.
Bangladesh ranks 7th and China ranks 9th of 96 countries.
Across the 3 decades both report, Bangladesh averaged higher in 2 and China in 1.
Head to head by decade
| Decade | Bangladesh | China | Difference | Ahead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 9.77 million underweight children | 12.65 million underweight children | 2.88 million underweight children | China |
| 2000s | 7.42 million underweight children | 5.18 million underweight children | 2.24 million underweight children | Bangladesh |
| 2010s | 5.03 million underweight children | 2.15 million underweight children | 2.88 million underweight children | Bangladesh |
Averages of every year both report within each decade.
Frequently asked questions
- Which has higher malnutrition: number of children who are underweight, Bangladesh or China?
- Bangladesh, at 3.54 million underweight children against 2.15 million underweight children in China as of 2022.
- What is the difference in malnutrition: number of children who are underweight between Bangladesh and China?
- 1.38 million underweight children, with Bangladesh ahead.
- How many years of comparable data are there for Bangladesh and China?
- 8 years are reported by both, from 1990 to 2013.
- How do Bangladesh and China rank globally for malnutrition: number of children who are underweight?
- Bangladesh ranks 7th and China ranks 9th of 96 countries.
- Where does this data come from?
- Joint child Malnutrition Estimates (JME) - UNICEF, WHO, and World Bank (2026); UN, World Population Prospects (2024) – processed by Our World in Data, published as Malnutrition: Number of children who are underweight. Statizoid refreshes it automatically from the source and publishes the full history for both places.
Individual pages
About this data
Prevalence of underweight children is the percentage of children under age 5 whose weight for age is more than two standard deviations below the median for the international reference population ages 0-59 months. The data are based on the WHO's child growth standards released in 2006.