Sri Lanka: Prevalence of wasting, weight for height (% of children under 5)

Key figures

Over five years it is down 0.6 percentage points from 9.9% in 2019. Since 1987 it is down 4 percentage points from 13.3% in 1987. The World Bank has no value for 24 of the years in between; the chart leaves those gaps open rather than joining across them.

How it compares

See how every economy compares in the full ranking.

Closest to Sri Lanka in the 2024 ranking

• Burundi — 2nd of 4: 7.8%
• Mali — 3rd of 4: 5.4%
• Zimbabwe — 4th of 4: 5.1%

What this measures

Prevalence of wasting is the proportion of children 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.

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

All 14 values

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

• Bangladesh — 10.7% (2022)
• India — 18.7% (2020)
• Nepal — 7% (2022)

More health data for Sri Lanka

• Population ages 00-04, female (% of female population) — 6.56% (2025)
• Population ages 00-04, male (% of male population) — 7.3% (2025)
• Population ages 0-14, female — 2.31 million (2025)
• Population ages 0-14, female (% of female population) — 20.6% (2025)
• Population ages 0-14, male — 2.41 million (2025)
• Population ages 0-14, male (% of male population) — 22.87% (2025)
• Population ages 0-14, total — 4.72 million (2025)
• Population ages 0-14 (% of total population) — 21.7% (2025)
• Population ages 05-09, female (% of female population) — 6.81% (2025)

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Questions people ask

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

9.3% in 2024, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1987?

It is down 4 percentage points from 13.3% in 1987. The highest value was 21.3% in 2012 and the lowest 8.2% in 2021.

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.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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