Malnutrition includes undernutrition, micronutrient-related malnutrition, overweight and obesity. The measures below show its global scale across adults, children, diets and anaemia, while distinguishing direct nutrition outcomes from related food-security indicators.
Key Malnutrition Statistics
The following figures summarize the most important global findings:
- In 2022, 2.5 billion adults aged 18 and older worldwide were overweight.
- In 2022, 890 million adults aged 18 and older worldwide were living with obesity.
- In 2022, about 390 million adults worldwide were underweight.
- In 2022, 390 million children and adolescents aged 5–19 worldwide were overweight.
- In 2022, 160 million children and adolescents aged 5–19 worldwide were living with obesity.
- In 2022, 190 million children and adolescents aged 5–19 worldwide had thinness.
- In 2024, 150.2 million children under 5 worldwide were stunted.
- In 2024, 42.8 million children under 5 worldwide were wasted.
- In 2024, 12.2 million children under 5 worldwide had severe wasting.
- In 2024, 35.5 million children under 5 worldwide were living with overweight.
- In 2024, Asia accounted for 51% of the world’s stunted children under 5.
- In 2024, Africa accounted for 43% of the world’s stunted children under 5.
- In 2024, about 2.3 billion people worldwide experienced moderate or severe food insecurity.
- In 2024, 2.6 billion people worldwide could not afford a healthy diet.
- In 2022–2023, about 181 million children under 5, or 27% globally, lived in severe child food poverty.
- In 2023, 30.7% of women aged 15–49 worldwide had anaemia.
- In 2023, 35.5% of pregnant women aged 15–49 worldwide had anaemia.
- In 2019, 39.8% of children aged 6–59 months worldwide were affected by anaemia.
Contents
- Global malnutrition statistics: undernutrition, overweight and obesity
- Child malnutrition statistics and recent trends
- Regional malnutrition data and 2030 progress
- Food insecurity and healthy-diet affordability statistics
- Child food poverty and dietary deprivation data
- Anaemia and micronutrient-related malnutrition statistics
Global Malnutrition Statistics: Undernutrition, Overweight and Obesity
WHO’s broad definition captures problems at both ends of nutritional status. Its 2022 global estimates show that excess weight and underweight coexist across age groups, so these categories should not be treated as one mutually exclusive total.
| Population and measure | 2022 estimate | Definition or scope |
|---|---|---|
| Adults aged 18+, overweight | 2.5 billion | Broader than obesity |
| Adults aged 18+, obesity | 890 million | WHO global estimate |
| Adults aged 18+, underweight | About 390 million | WHO global estimate |
| Ages 5–19, overweight | 390 million | Children and adolescents |
| Ages 5–19, obesity | 160 million | Children and adolescents |
| Ages 5–19, thinness | 190 million | BMI-for-age more than 2 SD below reference median |
Source: WHO, “Malnutrition”.
For children under 5, WHO estimated in 2022 that 149 million were stunted, 45 million were wasted, and 37 million were overweight or living with obesity. The stunting and wasting figures cited here predate the 2024 Joint Child Malnutrition Estimates revision, and WHO combines overweight and obesity in the 37-million figure.
Nearly half of deaths among children under 5 were linked to undernutrition in WHO’s current global summary, especially in low- and middle-income countries. WHO describes this as “nearly half,” rather than a precise annual death count.
Child Malnutrition Statistics and Recent Trends
The UNICEF-WHO-World Bank Joint Child Malnutrition Estimates provide updated model-based global estimates for 2024. Stunting means height-for-age below −2 standard deviations, wasting means low weight-for-height, and severe wasting means weight-for-height below −3 standard deviations.
| 2024 measure among children under 5 | Number | Prevalence |
|---|---|---|
| Stunting | 150.2 million | 23.2% |
| Wasting | 42.8 million | 6.6% |
| Severe wasting | 12.2 million | 1.9% |
| Overweight | 35.5 million | 5.5% |
Source: WHO, “Joint Child Malnutrition Estimates: Latest estimates”.
The 2024 wasting estimate is prevalence-based, so the annual cumulative number of children affected may be higher. The global overweight total increased by 2.4 million children between 2000 and 2024, according to the JME trend estimate.
These indicators describe different dimensions of child nutrition. A child can be counted in one measure at a given time, while population-level estimates should not be added together without a compatible methodology.
Regional Malnutrition Data and Progress Toward 2030 Targets
Regional concentration differs by outcome. In 2024, Asia accounted for 51% of the world’s stunted children under 5, while Africa accounted for 43%.
More than three-quarters of children with severe wasting lived in Asia in 2024, and Africa contained another 22%. The JME reports the Asian figure as more than 75%, not as an exact point estimate.
Progress classifications are not prevalence measures, but they indicate how current trends compare with international targets:
- Only about one-quarter of countries were on track to halve the number of stunted children under 5 by 2030.
- Only one in six countries was on track for the 2030 child-overweight target of 3% prevalence.
- The 2030 target to reduce stunted children to 90 million is projected to be missed by 46.0 million children at current progress.
These are JME progress assessments and a conditional projection, not observed future outcomes. The 2030 projection assumes current progress continues.
Related food-security data show additional regional pressure. Global hunger prevalence fell from 8.5% in 2023 to 8.2% in 2024, while Africa had 307 million food-insecure people in 2024, about 20% of its population.
Almost 60% of people at risk of chronic hunger are projected to be in Africa by 2030, based on current trends. Food insecurity and chronic-hunger risk are related indicators, not direct anthropometric diagnoses.
Source: WHO, “Joint Child Malnutrition Estimates: Latest estimates” and FAO, “SOFI 2025”.
Food Insecurity and Healthy-Diet Affordability Statistics
Food access helps explain the conditions surrounding malnutrition, but inability to afford a healthy diet does not prove that a particular person has malnutrition. FAO estimates combine the least-cost healthy diet with purchasing-power and income data.
About 2.3 billion people experienced moderate or severe food insecurity worldwide in 2024. In the same year, 2.6 billion people could not afford a healthy diet.
| Year and geography | People unable to afford a healthy diet | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 2019, global | 2.823 billion | 36.4% |
| 2022, global | 2.826 billion | 35.4% |
| 2022, Africa | — | 64.8% |
| 2022, Asia | — | 35.1% |
| 2022, Latin America and the Caribbean | — | 27.7% |
| 2022, Oceania | — | 20.1% |
Source: FAO, “Healthy diets remain unaffordable for a third of the world’s population”.
The 2019 and 2022 global counts are close in absolute terms even though the reported share declined from 36.4% to 35.4%. They are separate FAO historical affordability estimates and should not be interpreted as a direct change in diagnosed malnutrition.
Child Food Poverty and Dietary Deprivation Data
UNICEF’s 2022–2023 analysis defines severe child food poverty as consuming at most two of eight food groups. This is a survey-based dietary-deprivation measure, not an anthropometric diagnosis.
About 181 million children under 5, or 27% globally, lived in severe child food poverty in the analysis. South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa together accounted for 68% of these children, while 20 countries accounted for 65%.
Wealth status did not divide the affected population into only the poorest households:
- 84 million children in severe child food poverty, or 46%, lived in the two poorest wealth quintiles.
- 97 million children, or 54%, lived in middle or upper wealth quintiles.
UNICEF reports that children in severe child food poverty were up to 50% more likely to experience wasting. This is an association and does not establish that food poverty alone caused wasting.
Eggs, flesh foods, and pulses, nuts and seeds were each consumed by 3% or fewer of children in severe child food poverty. The food-group figures come from dietary recall and food-group reporting across UNICEF country analyses.
Source: UNICEF, “Child Food Poverty: Nutrition deprivation in early childhood”.
Anaemia and Micronutrient-Related Malnutrition Statistics
Anaemia is a key micronutrient-related nutrition outcome, but the available WHO estimates use different reference years for women and children. Keeping those periods separate is essential when comparing populations.
| Population | Reference year | Anaemia estimate |
|---|---|---|
| Women aged 15–49, global | 2023 | 30.7% |
| Pregnant women aged 15–49, global | 2023 | 35.5% |
| Non-pregnant women aged 15–49, global | 2023 | 30.5% |
| Children aged 6–59 months, global | 2019 | 39.8% |
Source: WHO, “Anaemia in women and children”.
The 2030 global anaemia target calls for a 50% reduction among women of reproductive age. In the 2025 assessment, only 18 countries, or 10% of all countries, had shown progress toward that goal; this is a progress assessment, not a prevalence measure.
Together, the evidence shows why malnutrition statistics need multiple lenses: body-size outcomes, child growth, dietary access and micronutrient status describe related but non-identical problems. Each estimate should be read with its population, period, geography and measurement method in view.