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What is child stunting — and how has it changed over the last 200 years? Stunting means being too short for one’s age due to chronic undernutrition and disease in early life. It’s one of the clearest markers of cumulative deprivation in childhood. 1)

Why does it matter? Stunting is associated with: • Higher child mortality • Impaired cognitive development • Lower adult earnings • Worse health across the life course It reflects the biological imprint of social and economic conditions. 2)

Today, stunting is a core global health indicator. Globally, rates fell from roughly 47% in the mid-1980s to about 22% today. That’s major progress — but still hundreds of millions of children affected. 3)

In our new paper (BMJ Global Health), we systematically collected 923 historical growth studies covering 122 countries from 1814–2016. By harmonising height-by-age data, we reconstruct stunting patterns over two centuries. Link: doi.org/10.1136/bmjg... 5)

@ourworldindata.org @maxroser.bsky.social @hannahritchie.bsky.social Not sure if it is easier to reach you all here or on email, but I wondered if Our World In Data would be interested in incorporating our new data into its articles on child stunting, malnutrition and adult stature.

Our data aren't as reliable as the Joint Malnutrition Estimates of child stunting which are currently included because the underlying studies are very heterogeneous, especially for older historical periods.

The historical picture is striking: In the 19th and early 20th centuries, stunting was widespread — even in countries that are high-income today. Large shares of children in Europe, North America, and East Asia were stunted by today’s standards. 6)

There was strong regional variation: • Lower early stunting in Scandinavia and some settler economies • Higher rates in parts of Western Europe • Exceptionally high levels in Japan and Korea But the long-run trend almost everywhere was downward. 7)