Malnutrition: Number of children who are underweight by country

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.

Countries reporting

Highest

37.35 million underweight children

India

Lowest

4,080 underweight children

Uruguay

Median

164,055 underweight children

Years covered

1984–2023

Data points

951

What the numbers show

Malnutrition: Number of children who are underweight is currently reported for 95 countries. The highest value is 37.35 million underweight children in India; the lowest is 4,080 underweight children in Uruguay.

The median across all reporting countries is 164,055 underweight children, and the mean is 1.02 million underweight children.

The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 9,155.

Over the past decade 24 countries rose and 71 fell. The largest increase was in Costa Rica (up 208.2%), and the largest decrease in South Korea (down 61.6%).

Malnutrition: Number of children who are underweight: full country ranking

#	Country	Latest	Year	10-year change	Trend
1	India	37.35 million underweight children	2020	down 35.7%	falling
2	Nigeria	8.11 million underweight children	2021	up 9.9%	rising
3	Pakistan	7.11 million underweight children	2018	down 23.4%	rising
4	Democratic Republic of Congo	4.82 million underweight children	2023	up 46.4%	rising
5	Ethiopia	3.65 million underweight children	2019	down 19.1%	falling
6	Indonesia	3.55 million underweight children	2023	down 27.2%	falling
7	Bangladesh	3.54 million underweight children	2022	down 33.4%	falling
8	Yemen	2.50 million underweight children	2022	up 58.5%	rising
9	China	2.15 million underweight children	2013	down 61.6%	volatile
10	Philippines	1.78 million underweight children	2021	down 28.0%	falling
11	Niger	1.58 million underweight children	2022	up 36.4%	rising
12	Afghanistan	1.21 million underweight children	2022	down 12.1%	falling
13	Tanzania	1.21 million underweight children	2022	up 7.6%	falling
14	Madagascar	998,956 underweight children	2021	down 5.6%	rising
15	Myanmar	880,483 underweight children	2018	down 14.4%	falling
16	Mozambique	854,254 underweight children	2022	up 29.0%	rising
17	Uganda	755,281 underweight children	2022	down 1.0%	falling
18	Mali	754,670 underweight children	2022	up 18.1%	rising
19	Vietnam	696,300 underweight children	2023	down 40.4%	volatile
20	Kenya	684,232 underweight children	2022	down 21.7%	falling
21	Chad	624,560 underweight children	2022	down 17.3%	rising
22	Cote d'Ivoire	618,683 underweight children	2021	up 2.4%	rising
23	Burundi	606,825 underweight children	2023	up 10.0%	rising
24	Burkina Faso	571,923 underweight children	2021	down 25.2%	falling
25	Nepal	513,536 underweight children	2022	down 41.2%	falling
26	Ghana	504,537 underweight children	2022	down 1.3%	falling
27	Egypt	455,087 underweight children	2021	down 36.7%	falling
28	Cameroon	444,875 underweight children	2018	down 10.8%	rising
29	Mexico	435,770 underweight children	2022	up 37.4%	falling
30	Benin	418,628 underweight children	2021	up 52.9%	rising
31	Senegal	397,165 underweight children	2023	up 19.0%	rising
32	Malawi	376,644 underweight children	2020	down 0.2%	falling
33	Malaysia	361,070 underweight children	2022	up 11.2%	falling
34	Zambia	344,536 underweight children	2018	down 0.4%	rising
35	Iran	326,019 underweight children	2017	up 31.5%	volatile
36	Guinea	324,955 underweight children	2022	down 6.0%	rising
37	Syria	314,829 underweight children	2010	up 112.9%	rising
38	Cambodia	297,417 underweight children	2021	down 39.6%	falling
39	Guatemala	280,908 underweight children	2021	up 3.2%	falling
40	Sri Lanka	279,595 underweight children	2023	down 40.9%	falling
41	South Africa	277,540 underweight children	2017	down 42.9%	falling
42	Iraq	220,926 underweight children	2018	down 30.0%	falling
43	Zimbabwe	218,857 underweight children	2019	down 11.1%	rising
44	Thailand	213,571 underweight children	2022	down 43.8%	volatile
45	Laos	193,353 underweight children	2023	down 6.4%	falling
46	Mauritania	175,900 underweight children	2022	up 36.4%	rising
47	Central African Republic	171,954 underweight children	2022	down 16.0%	rising
48	Togo	164,055 underweight children	2017	down 21.2%	rising
49	North Korea	155,986 underweight children	2017	down 50.2%	volatile
50	Rwanda	141,064 underweight children	2020	down 27.4%	falling
51	Sierra Leone	137,024 underweight children	2021	down 27.5%	falling
52	Algeria	136,048 underweight children	2019	up 26.4%	falling
53	Haiti	132,204 underweight children	2023	down 18.5%	falling
54	Colombia	129,652 underweight children	2016	down 37.9%	falling
55	Turkey	103,875 underweight children	2018	down 12.8%	volatile
56	Morocco	98,203 underweight children	2019	up 0.8%	volatile
57	Saudi Arabia	96,525 underweight children	2020	down 39.5%	falling
58	Venezuela	84,650 underweight children	2009	down 27.1%	falling
59	Liberia	81,375 underweight children	2019	down 23.8%	falling
60	United States	79,570 underweight children	2018	down 44.7%	falling
61	Honduras	78,462 underweight children	2019	down 16.6%	falling
62	Peru	72,680 underweight children	2023	down 28.5%	falling
63	Uzbekistan	71,157 underweight children	2021	down 36.6%	volatile
64	Tajikistan	69,346 underweight children	2023	down 54.1%	falling
65	Ecuador	60,361 underweight children	2023	down 41.8%	falling
66	Guinea-Bissau	54,553 underweight children	2019	up 32.9%	rising
67	East Timor	52,732 underweight children	2020	down 26.4%	falling
68	Oman	46,675 underweight children	2017	up 93.9%	falling
69	Gambia	43,582 underweight children	2020	down 24.3%	flat
70	Bolivia	42,271 underweight children	2016	down 22.1%	falling
71	Kazakhstan	38,968 underweight children	2015	down 42.9%	falling
72	Romania	38,900 underweight children	2002	down 53.8%	falling
73	Nicaragua	31,064 underweight children	2012	down 40.3%	falling
74	Dominican Republic	30,846 underweight children	2019	down 9.6%	falling
75	Lesotho	29,792 underweight children	2018	down 13.5%	falling
76	Jordan	29,082 underweight children	2023	down 1.3%	flat
77	El Salvador	25,300 underweight children	2021	down 36.3%	falling
78	United Kingdom	23,296 underweight children	2019	up 0.8%	rising
79	Kyrgyzstan	22,841 underweight children	2023	down 13.4%	volatile
81	Azerbaijan	20,244 underweight children	2023	down 50.9%	falling
82	Tunisia	17,109 underweight children	2018	down 37.9%	volatile
83	Palestine	15,231 underweight children	2020	down 34.0%	rising
84	Comoros	10,321 underweight children	2022	down 40.4%	falling
85	Costa Rica	9,994 underweight children	2018	up 208.2%	falling
86	Guyana	7,814 underweight children	2019	down 8.8%	falling
87	Kuwait	7,450 underweight children	2023	down 30.8%	rising
88	Eswatini	7,124 underweight children	2021	down 20.7%	falling
89	South Korea	6,994 underweight children	2020	down 61.6%	falling
90	Mongolia	6,707 underweight children	2023	up 23.8%	volatile
91	Chile	6,048 underweight children	2014	down 17.1%	volatile
92	Armenia	5,522 underweight children	2016	down 27.3%	rising
93	Maldives	5,357 underweight children	2017	down 1.2%	falling
94	Jamaica	4,472 underweight children	2018	down 20.9%	falling
95	Bhutan	4,205 underweight children	2023	down 48.7%	volatile
96	Uruguay	4,080 underweight children	2018	down 56.7%	falling

About this data

Indicator: Malnutrition: Number of children who are underweight
Unit: underweight children
Source: Joint child Malnutrition Estimates (JME) - UNICEF, WHO, and World Bank (2026); UN, World Population Prospects (2024) – processed by Our World in Data
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage: 96 places, 951 data points, 1984–2023
Last refreshed: 07 August 2026