Mali: Prevalence of wasting, weight for height, male (% of children under 5)

Key figures

What the numbers say

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 2.1 percentage points in 2011 and the biggest yearly fall was 3.7 percentage points in 2016. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2015 to 2024 the straight-line trend is downward, about 0.57 percentage points a year. A straight line explains 51% of the movement over 9 observed years.

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

Closest to Mali in the 2024 ranking

• Burundi — 1st of 2: 9.4%

What this measures

Prevalence of wasting, male, is the proportion of boys under age 5 whose weight for height is more than two standard deviations below the median for the international reference population ages 0-59 months.

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. Surveys are carried out in a specific period of the year, usually over a few months. However, this indicator can be affected by seasonality, factors related to food availability (e.g., pre-harvest periods), disease (e.g.,rainy season and diarrhoea, malaria, etc.), and natural disasters and conflicts. Hence, country-year estimates may not necessarily be comparable over time.

All 16 values

Prevalence of wasting, weight for height, male (% of children under 5) in nearby economies

• Burkina Faso — 10.6% (2021)
• Burundi — 9.4% (2024)
• Chad — 8.7% (2022)
• Ghana — 6.6% (2022)
• Kenya — 5% (2022)
• Malawi — 2.7% (2020)
• Mauritania — 15% (2022)
• Niger — 12.1% (2022)
• Senegal

More health data for Mali

• Population ages 00-04, female (% of female population) — 17.21% (2025)
• Population ages 00-04, male (% of male population) — 17.26% (2025)
• Population ages 0-14, female — 5.71 million (2025)
• Population ages 0-14, female (% of female population) — 45.71% (2025)
• Population ages 0-14, male — 5.83 million (2025)
• Population ages 0-14, male (% of male population) — 45.88% (2025)
• Population ages 0-14, total — 11.54 million (2025)
• Population ages 0-14 (% of total population) — 45.79% (2025)
• Population ages 05-09, female (% of female population) — 15.09% (2025)
• Population ages 05-09, male (% of male population)

Reading data like this

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Questions people ask

What is Mali's prevalence of wasting, weight for height, male (% of children under 5)?

6.3% in 2024, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1987?

It is down 9.7 percentage points from 16% in 1987. The highest value was 25.3% in 1996 and the lowest 6.3% in 2024.

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.WAST.MA.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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