Which has higher prevalence of wasting, weight for height, North Korea or Malawi?

Malawi, at 2.6% against 2.5% in North Korea as of 2020.

How many years of comparable data are there for North Korea and Malawi?

6 years are reported by both, from 1998 to 2017.

Where does this data come from?

UNICEF, WHO, World Bank: Joint child Malnutrition Estimates (JME). Aggregation is based on UNICEF, WHO, and the World Bank harmonized dataset (adjusted, comparable data) and methodology., UN Children', published as Prevalence of wasting, weight for height (% of children under 5). Statizoid refreshes it automatically from the source and publishes the full history for both places.

North Korea vs Malawi: Prevalence of wasting, weight for height

North Korea

2.5%

in 2017

Malawi

2.6%

in 2020

North Korea rank

72nd

Malawi rank

71st

Prevalence of wasting, weight for height over time

North Korea
Malawi

How they compare

Malawi currently reports 2.6% against 2.5% in North Korea, a difference of 0.1%.

The two have swapped places 1 time across 6 shared years of data; in 1998 it was North Korea ahead.

North Korea ranks 72nd and Malawi ranks 71st of 99 countries.

Across the 3 decades both report, North Korea averaged higher in 2 and Malawi in 1.

Head to head by decade

Decade	North Korea	Malawi	Difference	Ahead
1990s	20.8%	8.9%	11.9%	North Korea
2000s	8.7%	5.3%	3.3%	North Korea
2010s	2.5%	2.6%	0.1%	Malawi

Averages of every year both report within each decade.

Frequently asked questions

Which has higher prevalence of wasting, weight for height, North Korea or Malawi?: Malawi, at 2.6% against 2.5% in North Korea as of 2020.
What is the difference in prevalence of wasting, weight for height between North Korea and Malawi?: 0.1%, with Malawi ahead.
How many years of comparable data are there for North Korea and Malawi?: 6 years are reported by both, from 1998 to 2017.
How do North Korea and Malawi rank globally for prevalence of wasting, weight for height?: North Korea ranks 72nd and Malawi ranks 71st of 99 countries.
Where does this data come from?: UNICEF, WHO, World Bank: Joint child Malnutrition Estimates (JME). Aggregation is based on UNICEF, WHO, and the World Bank harmonized dataset (adjusted, comparable data) and methodology., UN Children', published as Prevalence of wasting, weight for height (% of children under 5). Statizoid refreshes it automatically from the source and publishes the full history for both places.

Individual pages

Share, cite or embed this page

Cite this page

North Korea vs Malawi: Prevalence of wasting, weight for height. Statizoid, drawing on UNICEF, WHO, World Bank: Joint child Malnutrition Estimates (JME). Aggregation is based on UNICEF, WHO, and the World Bank harmonized dataset (adjusted, comparable data) and methodology., UN Children'. Retrieved 17 September 2026, from https://health.statizoid.com/compare/prevalence-of-wasting-weight-for-height-percent-of-children-under-5/korea-dem-people-s-rep/malawi/

Embed or link this data

Paste this into a page to link back to these figures. The data itself is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (World Bank Open Data); please keep the attribution.

<a href="https://health.statizoid.com/compare/prevalence-of-wasting-weight-for-height-percent-of-children-under-5/korea-dem-people-s-rep/malawi/">North Korea vs Malawi: Prevalence of wasting, weight for height</a> — Statizoid

About this data

Indicator: Prevalence of wasting, weight for height (% of children under 5)
Unit: % of children under 5
Source: UNICEF, WHO, World Bank: Joint child Malnutrition Estimates (JME). Aggregation is based on UNICEF, WHO, and the World Bank harmonized dataset (adjusted, comparable data) and methodology., UN Children'
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (World Bank Open Data)
Coverage: 113 places, 1,312 data points, 1984–2024
Last refreshed: 17 September 2026

Prevalence of wasting is the proportion of children under age 5 whose weight for height is more than two standard deviations below the median for the international reference population ages 0-59 months.