252 Million Children Under 5 in 97 Countries Undernourished or Multidimensionally Poor

The report draws on observed household survey data covering 518 million children under 5 and 1.04 billion school-aged children. Researchers assessed nutrition, school attendance, and nine additional MPI indicators spanning health, education, and living standards. Nearly one-third of under-5s were stunted or underweight, with 96 million also living in households deprived in at least one-third of MPI indicators, averaging four to five extra deprivations beyond undernutrition.

Intra-household inequality affects over one-third of poor families, where some children are undernourished or out of school while siblings are not. More than 80 percent of the 136 million out-of-school children are multidimensionally poor, and 82 percent live in homes where no woman completed six years of schooling. These patterns align with WHO and UNICEF data showing stalled progress on stunting targets in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

The findings underscore that single-sector nutrition programs miss clustered deprivations in sanitation, housing, and maternal education. Multisectoral social protection is required to address the intensity of poverty experienced by these children.

Next steps include updated MPI estimates post-2025 surveys and integration of these metrics into national SDG monitoring to track whether targeted interventions reduce the 252 million figure by at least 15 percent within five years.