The State of the World's Children 2019: Children, Food and Nutrition

The 2019 State of the World’s Children Report from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) provides the latest update to statistics compiled by UNICEF on child well-being. This year’s report focuses on the triple burden of malnutrition in children: undernutrition, hidden hunger, and overnutrition.

Undernutrition continues to be a significant issue, with 200 million children in 2018 suffering from stunting or wasting and 340 million suffering from hidden hunger. On the other side of malnutrition is overweight and obesity, with the proportion of overweight children rising from 1 in 10 in 2000, to nearly 1 in 5 in 2016. Malnutrition is driven by the poor quality of children’s eating habits, with two-thirds of children not being fed the recommended diverse diet. In order to promote healthier diets and to provide the proper nutrients for children, the food system needs to deliver nutritious, safe, and affordable food – thus allowing families to make healthier food choices. The report provides five goals to improve childhood nutrition: empower families, children, and young people to demand nutritious foods; push suppliers to provide nutritious food for children; construct heathy food environments for all children; provide support systems to scale up nutrition results; and collect, analyze, and use data to guide action and track progress. This report is accompanied by an interactive site, regional nutrition briefs, an executive summary, as well as an interactive data portal.

Launched in 1980, The State of the World’s Children is the most comprehensive analysis of global trends affecting children. Each year, this flagship publication by UNICEF examines a key issue affecting children across the globe, and provides up-to-date and accessibly presented economic and social statistics on the countries and territories of the world, with particular reference to children’s well-being. All previous reports are made publicly available on UNICEF’s website and can be read in multiple languages.