Child stunting in Bangladesh has fallen from 60% to 24%

DEEPLAB Research Team

Child stunting in Bangladesh has fallen from 60% to 24%

DEEPLAB Research Team • Published October 6, 2026

Child stunting has fallen by more than half since the 1990s

Share of children under 5 who are too short for their age (stunted), by survey year

Source: UNICEF, WHO and World Bank Joint Child Malnutrition Estimates, from BDHS and MICS surveys, via World Bank WDI (SH.STA.STNT.ZS)

Stunting — being too short for one’s age — is the clearest sign of chronic undernutrition in early childhood, and it affects brain development, schooling and earnings for life. In 1997, 60% of Bangladeshi children under five were stunted.

60% → 24%
Stunted children under five, 1997 to 2022.

By the 2022 Demographic and Health Survey the share had fallen to 24%, one of the fastest declines in the world, driven by falling poverty, better maternal education, sanitation and health care. But with more than 14 million children under five, nearly one in four stunted is still millions of children, concentrated among the poorest households and highest in Sylhet division.

Source: UNICEF/WHO/World Bank Joint Child Malnutrition Estimates, from BDHS and MICS, via World Bank WDI.

Child stunting in Bangladesh has fallen from 60% to 24%

Child stunting has fallen by more than half since the 1990s

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