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

Key figures

Since 1989 it is down 2.9 percentage points from 3.9% in 1989. The World Bank has no value for 8 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 2.7 percentage points in 1992 and the biggest yearly fall was 5.1 percentage points in 2007. 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.

Closest to Jamaica in the 2018 ranking

• United States — 2nd of 2: 0.3%

What this measures

Prevalence of underweight, female, is the percentage of girls 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.

All 22 values

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

• Mexico — 5.8% (2022)
• Peru — 2.4% (2023)

More health data for Jamaica

• Population ages 00-04, female (% of female population) — 5.5% (2025)
• Population ages 00-04, male (% of male population) — 5.83% (2025)
• Population ages 0-14, female — 254,729 (2025)
• Population ages 0-14, female (% of female population) — 17.76% (2025)
• Population ages 0-14, male — 264,030 (2025)
• Population ages 0-14, male (% of male population) — 18.83% (2025)
• Population ages 0-14, total — 518,759 (2025)
• Population ages 0-14 (% of total population) — 18.29% (2025)
• Population ages 05-09, female (% of female population) — 5.79% (2025)

Reading data like this

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Questions people ask

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

1% in 2018, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1989?

It is down 2.9 percentage points from 3.9% in 1989. The highest value was 6.5% in 1993 and the lowest 0.9% in 2008.

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.FE.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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