Development Contrasts: Health Outcomes

​Some of the starkest differences in development outcomes are seen when we look at health outcomes. In this video we focus on child malnutrition and healthy life expectancy at birth.

​Healthy life expectancy at birth:
Average number of years that a person can expect to live in full health by considering years lived in less than full health because of disease and injury.

Child malnutrition:

Percentage of children under age 5 who are more than two standard deviations below the median height-for-age of the reference population.

​Stunting affected an estimated 21.9 per cent or 149 million children under 5 years of age globally in 2018.

World Bank Research Paper, Galasso & Wagstaff (2018)

“We estimate that, on average, the per capita income penalty from stunting is around 7%, i.e. per capita income in the developing world would have been 7% higher if nobody currently working had been stunted in childhood. Africa and South Asia incur larger penalties: around 9-10% of GDP per capita."