6.7% of children under five years old worldwide suffer from severe wasting.

UNICEF reported that 45.4 million or 6.7% of children under five years old worldwide suffered from wasting (low weight for height) in 2020. South Asia had the highest percentage at 14.7%.

West and Central Africa ranked second with a wasting percentage of 7.2% in children under five. This was followed by the Middle East and North Africa at 6.3%.

The percentage of wasting among children in East and Southern Africa was recorded at 5.3%. East Asia and the Pacific region had 3.7%, and Eastern Europe and Central Asia had 1.9%. Meanwhile, Latin America and the Caribbean had 1.3% of children suffering from wasting.

Wasting usually occurs due to a drastic weight loss resulting from insufficient daily nutritional needs. The implication is that a child will be more susceptible to illness and their intellectual ability will be affected.

The World Health Organization (WHO) states that wasting is a major health problem because this condition is directly related to the incidence of disease (morbidity).