II-d. Numbers of People Malnourished
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations' The Sixth World Food Survey of 1997:
The main conclusion of the survey is that per caput dietary energy supplies have continued to increase in the developing countries as a whole, with the result that, during the two decades from 1969-71, the prevalence of food inadequacy declined: 20 percent of the total population had inadequate access to food in 1990-92 compared with 35 percent two decades ago. Even more remarkable was the improvement in absolute terms, i.e. fewer people faced inadequate food access in 1990-92 compared with 20 years ago, notwithstanding the addition of 1.5 billion people to the population of developing countries during this period. The number of people with inadequate access to food declined from 918 million in 1969-71 to 906 million in 1979-81 and further to 841 million in 1990-92. Nevertheless, this number was still very high in 1990-92, as one out of five people in the developing world faced food inadequacy (pp. v-vi).
In terms of anthropometric measures of nutrition status, The Sixth World Food Survey said:
It is estimated that in 1990, there were 179 million children under five who were weight-deficient, 215 million who were stunted and 48 million who were wasted in the developing countries. Of the total population under five years of age, 41 percent were stunted, 34 percent were underweight and 9 percent were wasted. The highest proportions were found in South Asia, followed by sub-Saharan Africa (p. 79).
The ACC/SCN's Third Report on the World Nutrition Situation of 1997 focused on stunting (low height for age or weight) and micronutrient deficiencies. It reported that:
In 1995 stunting affected 53.5% of preschool children in South Asia, 39.4% in Sub-Saharan Africa, 38.3% in South East Asia, 27.8% in Middle America and the Caribbean, 22.2% in Near East/North Africa, and 12.9% in South America. About 34.1% of preschool children in China were stunted in 1992.
These prevalences translate into very large numbers of stunted children: by far the worst affected region is South Asia, where 89.9 million children were stunted in 1995, followed by 42.6 million in Sub-Saharan Africa. About 30.2 million children were stunted in South East Asia in 1995. In comparison, numbers are much lower in the three remaining regions: 10.9 million in Near East/North Africa, 5.6 million in Middle America/Caribbean and 4.6 million in South America.
The prevalence of stunting has declined globally from 48.8% in 1980 to 39.9% in 1995. However, numbers (excluding China) have increased over this period from about 175.8 to 183.9 million.
The report showed that
the number of stunted preschoolers worldwide has increased during the period 1980 to 1995; more alarming is the fact that the numbers in Sub-Saharan Africa have increased by 62% during this time period (p. 83).
UNICEF's annual State of the World's Children reports regularly provide data on the extent to which children are malnourished in individual countries and in the world as a whole. Its 1998 issue focussed on the problem of malnutrition, and discussed the major issues and the actions being taken to address them. Its summary statement regarding numbers is that:
In some parts of the world, notably Latin America and East Asia, there have been dramatic gains in reducing child malnutrition. But overall, the absolute number of malnourished children worldwide has grown.
Half of South Asia's children are malnourished. In Africa, one of every three children is underweight, and in several countries of the continent, the nutritional status of children is worsening.
It has been estimated that about 20 million people in the United States are chronically malnourished (Physician Task Force 1985; Brown 1987a; Brown 1987b). This should be interpreted with caution, however, because this figure is based on methods of estimation that are very different from those used by the international organizations (Insight 1988). Using measures and standards commonly used internationally, there is little malnutrition in the United States in comparison with developing countries. However, in comparison with other industrialized countries, the United States performance is very poor.
Continue to II-e. Malnutrition and Mortality
Subsection II-d last updated on September 26, 1999