Wasting in children — all countries

Wasting in children — Malta

Wasting in children in Malta in 2022 — 0.4%. Ranked 2 in the world out of 31.

2022 0.4%
World rank 2of 31
Period maximum 0.4%2022
Period minimum 0.4%2022

Trend over time

2022–2022 · % of children under 5

Change over the period: +0 pp

Comparison, 2022

How the value compares with the world and the groups this territory belongs to: Malta

Malta 0.4%
World 6.7%
Wasting in children — Malta, by year Malta All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2022 0.4

About the indicator

The share of children under five whose weight falls short of the WHO norm for their height by more than two standard deviations. Unlike stunting, wasting speaks of an acute shortage of nutrition or of a recent illness, and it is reversible: with normal feeding a child regains the weight. That is exactly why wasting serves as an indicator of a current crisis — drought, war, breaks in supply — and not of long-standing poverty.

Important: The data come from sample surveys, so the years are intermittent. The aggregate by group is weighted by the number of children aged 0–14.

Source: Global Health Observatory (WHO), license CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.