“Leaving no one behind” is an overarching principle of the Sustainable Development Goals. Many countries are prioritizing resources for those who are furthest behind. Existing malnutrition indicators—underweight, stunting, wasting, overweight, and severe wasting—are headcount ratios. They do not capture how far behind malnourished children are relative to the World Health Organization growth standards. To understand the severity of malnutrition, this study develops a new malnutrition measurement, using the method originally developed for estimating poverty. This study estimates the prevalence, gap, and gap squared for stunting, wasting, overweight, and underweight, using data from 94 developing countries over 20 years.

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