TRACKING PROGRESS ON CHILD AND MATERNAL NUTRITION A survival and development priority © United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) November 2009 Permission to reproduce any part of this publication is required. Please contact: Division of Communication, UNICEF 3 United Nations Plaza New York, NY 10017, USA Email: nyhqdoc.permit@unicef.org Permission will be freely granted to educational or non-profit organizations. Others will be requested to pay a small fee. This report contains nutrition profiles for 24 countries with the largest burden of stunting, beginning on page 43. Additional country nutrition profiles will be available early 2010 at . For any corrigenda found subsequent to printing, please visit our website at www.unicef.org/publications>. For any data updates subsequent to printing, please visit . ISBN: 978-92-806-4482-1 Sales no.: E.09.XX.25 United Nations Children’s Fund 3 United Nations Plaza New York, NY 10017, USA Email: pubdoc@unicef.org Website: www.unicef.org Overview 15 3. CURRENT STATUS OF NUTRITION Stunting Stunting affects approximately 195 million children under 5 years old in the developing world, or about one in three. Africa and Asia have high stunting rates – 40 per cent and 36 per cent, respectively – and more than 90 per cent of the world’s stunted children live on these two continents. Of the 10 countries that contribute most to the global burden of stunting among children, 6 are in Asia. These countries all have relatively large populations: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and the Philippines. Due to the high prevalence of stunting (48 per cent) in combination with a large population, India alone has an estimated 61 million stunted children, accounting for more than 3 out of every 10 stunted children in the developing world. 195 million children in the developing world are stunted Number of children under 5 years old who are moderately or severely stunted (2008) Number of children who are stunted Circle size is proportional to the number of children 50 million 10 million 1 million 100,000 Data not available Stunting prevalence worldwide Percentage of children under 5 years old who are moderately or severely stunted Less than 5 per cent 5–19 per cent 20–29 per cent 30–39 per cent 40 per cent or more Data not available Notes for all maps in this publication: The maps in this publication are stylized and not to scale. They do not reflect a position by UNICEF on the legal status of any country or territory or the delimitation of any frontiers. The dotted line represents approximately the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir agreed upon by India and Pakistan. The final status of Jammu and Kashmir has not yet been agreed upon by the parties. For detailed notes on the map data, see page 42. Sources for both maps on this page: MICS, DHS and other national surveys, 2003–2008. > Published by UNICEF Division of Communication 3 United Nations Plaza New York, NY 10017, USA Website: www.unicef.org Email: pubdoc@unicef.org ISBN 978-92-806-4482-1 Sales Number: E.09.XX.25 Price: US$25 © United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) November 2009