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Childhood stunting rates

What you should know about this indicator

  • Stunting rates are an important indicator of child health and nutrition. High rates can reflect poor nutrition and frequent exposure to disease or illness, which increase a child’s nutrient requirements and affect their ability to retain nutrients. This can hinder physical and cognitive development, and can persist throughout someone’s life.
  • Children are considered stunted if their height-for-age is more than two standard deviations below the median of the World Health Organization (WHO) child growth standards.
  • This data comes from an article by Scheider et al. (2026) that compiles historical studies and the UN Joint Malnutrition Estimates (JME) database to provide a long-term perspective on child stunting rates.
  • Schneider et al. compile stunting rates among children between 2 and 10 years old. This data is therefore not directly comparable to more recent datasets (such as the UN JME database) which provide stunting rates for children under 5 years old.
  • This chart includes only data points from high-quality studies e.g. studies that are nationally representative and have larger sample sizes. The full dataset includes additional data points and is available via the original paper here
  • The year shown is the birth decade of the children in each study, plotted at the midpoint of that decade. So the 1955 data point includes children born between 1950 and 1959.
Childhood stunting rates
Share of children between 2 and 10 years old who are , so shorter than would be expected for their age. Stunting is a sign of long-term malnutrition or poor health in early childhood.
Source
Schneider et al. (2026) – with minor processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
March 27, 2026
Date range
1895–2015
Unit
%

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

Schneider et al. – Worldwide Historical Child Stunting Dataset

This dataset presents child stunting rates from the systematic review of historical child growth studies performed by Schneider et al. (2026). "The Decline of Child Stunting in 122 Countries: A Systematic Review of Child Growth Studies Since the Nineteenth Century".

The article is a systematic review of 923 child growth studies covering 122 countries from 1814 to 2016, reconstructing historical rates of child stunting before 1990.

Retrieved on
March 27, 2026
Retrieved from
https://zenodo.org/records/18262234
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Schneider EB, Jaramillo Echeverri J, Purcell M, A'Hearn B, Arthi V, Blum M, et al.
The decline of child stunting in 122 countries: a systematic review of child growth studies
since the 19th century. BMJ Global Health. 2026;11:e018607.
https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2024-018607, Data available at https://zenodo.org/records/18262234

This dataset presents child stunting rates from the systematic review of historical child growth studies performed by Schneider et al. (2026). "The Decline of Child Stunting in 122 Countries: A Systematic Review of Child Growth Studies Since the Nineteenth Century".

The article is a systematic review of 923 child growth studies covering 122 countries from 1814 to 2016, reconstructing historical rates of child stunting before 1990.

Retrieved on
March 27, 2026
Retrieved from
https://zenodo.org/records/18262234
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Schneider EB, Jaramillo Echeverri J, Purcell M, A'Hearn B, Arthi V, Blum M, et al.
The decline of child stunting in 122 countries: a systematic review of child growth studies
since the 19th century. BMJ Global Health. 2026;11:e018607.
https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2024-018607, Data available at https://zenodo.org/records/18262234

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Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Childhood stunting rates”, part of the following publication: Saloni Dattani, Fiona Spooner, Hannah Ritchie, and Max Roser (2023) - “Child and Infant Mortality”. Data adapted from Schneider et al.. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260430-112638/grapher/long-run-childhood-stunting-rates.html [online resource] (archived on April 30, 2026).

How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

Schneider et al. (2026) – with minor processing by Our World in Data

Full citation

Schneider et al. (2026) – with minor processing by Our World in Data. “Childhood stunting rates” [dataset]. Schneider et al., “Worldwide Historical Child Stunting Dataset” [original data]. Retrieved April 30, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260430-112638/grapher/long-run-childhood-stunting-rates.html (archived on April 30, 2026).

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