China halves child stunted growth over 20 years: report

BEIJING -- China has decreased the stunted growth rate, impaired growth and development due to poor nutrition or illness, by 54 percent among children under the age of five over the past two decades, said a report released ahead of the International Children's Day, which falls on June 1.

Over the past two decades, China's score rose 80 points, from 861 to 941, due to reductions in child deaths and malnutrition, according to the annual Global Childhood Report 2019, released by international charity Save the Children on Wednesday.

The report compared the year 2000 with 2018, looking at eight indicators of a good childhood: premature death, stunted growth, education, child labor, early marriage, early pregnancy, child homicides and displacement.

According to the report, one in four children under the age of five has stunted growth among the 176 countries and regions it evaluated. But there were 49 million fewer stunted children in 2018 than in 2000, and the global stunted-growth rate declined from 32.5 percent in 2000 to 21.9 percent in 2018.

The report noted that of all the children saved from stunted growth live in Asia with China and India together accounting for more than half of the global decline.

"It is great to see China has made tremendous progress in improving children's access to daily and adequate nutrition in the first five years of life," said Sebastien Kuster, Save the Children China's chief operating officer.

The circumstances for children have improved since 2000 in 173 out of 176 countries the report covered. Among the eight indicators in the report, displacement is the only one on the rise.