Bangladesh: Prevalence of underweight, weight for age (% of children under 5)

Key figures

Since 1986 it is down 45.1 percentage points from 66.8% in 1986. The World Bank has no value for 10 of the years in between; the chart leaves those gaps open rather than joining across them.

What the numbers say

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 3.9 percentage points in 2004 and the biggest yearly fall was 7.1 percentage points in 2000. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

Worked out from the yearly values above. How the checks work: standard deviation, z-scores and straight-line trends.

How it compares

In 2022, Bangladesh had the 3rd highest value of the 11 economies reporting that year. Higher is not always better: for some indicators the lowest value is the one to aim for. See the full ranking.

Closest to Bangladesh in the 2022 ranking

• Niger — 1st of 11: 34.6%
• Mauritania — 2nd of 11: 22.4%
• Nepal — 4th of 11: 18.3%
• Chad — 5th of 11: 18.2%
• Malaysia — 6th of 11: 15.3%

What this measures

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 2006 Child Growth Standards.

Limitations: Survey estimates come with levels of uncertainty due to both sampling error and non-sampling error (e.g., measurement technical error, recording error etc.,). None of the two sources of errors have been fully taken into account for deriving estimates neither at country nor at regional or worldwide levels.

Regional and income-group figures are computed by the World Bank as a linear mixed-effect model estimates.

All 27 values

Prevalence of underweight, weight for age (% of children under 5) in nearby economies

• India — 31.5% (2020)
• Nepal — 18.3% (2022)
• Sri Lanka — 17.1% (2024)

More health data for Bangladesh

• Population ages 00-04, female (% of female population) — 9.21% (2025)
• Population ages 00-04, male (% of male population) — 9.97% (2025)
• Population ages 0-14, female — 23.54 million (2025)
• Population ages 0-14, female (% of female population) — 26.35% (2025)
• Population ages 0-14, male — 25.03 million (2025)
• Population ages 0-14, male (% of male population) — 28.99% (2025)
• Population ages 0-14, total — 48.57 million (2025)
• Population ages 0-14 (% of total population) — 27.65% (2025)
• Population ages 05-09, female (% of female population) — 8.59% (2025)

Reading data like this

• Where to find free public data, and how to check it before you trust it — 2 min read
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Questions people ask

What is Bangladesh's prevalence of underweight, weight for age (% of children under 5)?

21.7% in 2022, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1986?

It is down 45.1 percentage points from 66.8% in 1986. The highest value was 66.8% in 1986 and the lowest 21.7% in 2022.

How does Bangladesh rank?

3rd highest of 11 economies with data for 2022.

Where does this data come from?

The World Bank's World Development Indicators, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: UNICEF, WHO, World Bank: Joint child Malnutrition Estimates (JME). Aggregation is based on UNICEF, WHO, and the World Bank harmonized dataset (adjusted, comparable data) and methodology., UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), note: Aggregation is based on UNICEF, WHO, and the World Bank harmonized dataset (a….

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator SH.STA.MALN.ZS, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: UNICEF, WHO, World Bank: Joint child Malnutrition Estimates (JME). Aggregation is based on UNICEF, WHO, and the World Bank harmonized dataset (adjusted, comparable data) and methodology., UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), note: Aggregation is based on UNICEF, WHO, and the World Bank harmonized dataset (a… Figures are fetched from the World Bank API and refreshed monthly; see the series on data.worldbank.org. The full definition and method are in the World Bank's metadata glossary. Comparisons use the same World Bank release.

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