Burkina Faso Prevalence of underweight, weight for age, female (% of children under 5)

Burkina Faso Prevalence of underweight, weight for age, female (% of children under 5): Key Points

• What jumps out first is the 22% fall — Burkina Faso's prevalence of underweight, weight for age, female went from 19.00 Percentage in 2014 to 14.80 Percentage in 2021.
• 2016-2017: erodes to 14.40 Percentage (-30%).
• 2018: jumps to 15.70 Percentage (+9%).
• 2019-2020: caves in to 10.90 Percentage (-31%).
• 2021: leaps to 14.80 Percentage (+36%).
• Net result across the whole period: down 22.1%, closing 2021 at 14.80 Percentage.

What The Volatility Really Means

Multiple direction changes over the period mean any two-point comparison — say, first year to last — is likely to be misleading on its own. The middle years matter just as much.

Worth noting this move happens in 2020, the year lockdowns disrupted ordinary activity broadly across the world. It may or may not be the direct explanation here, but it's the most common one for a dip landing in exactly this year.

The single biggest move in this whole series lands in 2016, at 20%. If you are building an argument on this chart, that is the year to fact-check against outside sources first.

This chart answers 'what happened' for Burkina Faso, not 'is that good or bad' — that second question needs a comparison point, either other countries or a longer run of history than what's shown here.

Worth remembering this isn't a live feed — it's Burkina Faso's periodically-updated official statistics, with the usual lag and modeling that comes with any indicator series like this.