Maternal nutrition statistics show two related challenges: anemia remains widespread among pregnant women, while overweight and obesity affect large shares of women before pregnancy. These patterns vary substantially by country, race and ethnicity, age, education, and region. The figures below use the measurement periods reported by the original sources and distinguish pregnancy-specific measures from broader indicators for women and newborns.
Contents
- Global anemia burden in pregnancy
- Country variation in pregnancy anemia
- Prepregnancy obesity by race and ethnicity
- Prepregnancy obesity by age and education
- Low birth weight as an outcome
- The global double burden of women’s nutrition
Global anemia burden in pregnancy
Anemia is one of the clearest global indicators of nutritional vulnerability during the reproductive years. The World Health Organization estimated that anemia affected 35.5% of pregnant women aged 15–49 worldwide in 2023. Among all women aged 15–49, the prevalence was 30.7%, compared with 30.5% among non-pregnant women in the same age range. These are different population groups, so the figures should not be read as a direct before-and-after comparison for individual women.
The WHO’s 2023 estimate also sits within a worsening longer-term pattern. Anemia among women of reproductive age rose from 27.6% in 2012 to 30.7% in 2023. In its 2025 assessment, WHO reported that only 18 countries—10% of all countries—were progressing toward the global 2030 target for reducing anemia in women. The assessment date is 2025, while the prevalence observation is from 2023.
UNICEF’s 2025 women’s nutrition summary reported that 31% of women aged 15–49 were living with anemia. This broader summary is consistent in scale with the WHO estimate, but it should not be treated as a pregnancy-only measure. The population definition and reporting context matter when comparing these statistics.
Sources: Anaemia in women and children, World Health Organization; Women’s nutrition, UNICEF DATA.
Country variation in pregnancy anemia
The 2023 World Bank Gender Data Portal indicator measures anemia prevalence among pregnant women, with the indicator definition identified as hemoglobin below 110 g/L. The country estimates show a wide range rather than a single global experience.
| Country | Pregnant women with anemia, 2023 |
|---|---|
| United States | 10.2% |
| China | 14.2% |
| United Kingdom | 14.3% |
| France | 14.8% |
| Canada | 15.1% |
| Japan | 22.5% |
| Brazil | 23.1% |
| Ethiopia | 26.2% |
| South Africa | 29.3% |
| Afghanistan | 31.6% |
| Egypt | 36.3% |
| Pakistan | 39.1% |
| Kenya | 39.8% |
| Ghana | 45.3% |
| Nigeria | 45.0% |
| India | 46.6% |
| Côte d’Ivoire | 57.3% |
| Benin | 60.2% |
| Mali | 62.1% |
Among the listed countries, Mali had the highest reported prevalence at 62.1%, followed by Benin at 60.2% and Côte d’Ivoire at 57.3%. At the other end of this comparison, the United States was 10.2%, China 14.2%, the United Kingdom 14.3%, France 14.8%, and Canada 15.1%.
Other reported 2023 estimates included 38.6% in Bangladesh, 36.3% in Egypt, 45.3% in Ghana, 45.0% in Nigeria, 46.6% in India, 39.1% in Pakistan, and 25.7% in Mexico. The estimates describe prevalence in pregnant women for that year; they do not establish why countries differ or measure the quality of individual diets.
Source: Prevalence of anemia among pregnant women (any age), with Hb<110 g/L, World Bank Gender Data Portal.
Prepregnancy obesity by race and ethnicity
Anemia is not the only maternal nutrition concern. In the United States, prepregnancy obesity rose from 26.1% in 2016 to 29.0% in 2019, an 11% increase according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The series describes women before pregnancy and is not a measure of obesity during pregnancy.
The CDC reported different levels among the three largest U.S. race and Hispanic-origin groups. Among non-Hispanic White women, prepregnancy obesity increased from 24.1% in 2016 to 26.6% in 2019. Among non-Hispanic Black women, it rose from 36.4% to 39.1%. Among Hispanic women, it rose from 28.9% to 32.4%.
| U.S. group | 2016 | 2019 |
|---|---|---|
| Non-Hispanic White women | 24.1% | 26.6% |
| Non-Hispanic Black women | 36.4% | 39.1% |
| Hispanic women | 28.9% | 32.4% |
In every year from 2016 through 2019, non-Hispanic Black women had the highest prepregnancy-obesity percentage among these three groups, while non-Hispanic White women had the lowest. This comparison describes population patterns; it does not imply that race or ethnicity itself is a biological cause of obesity.
Source: Increases in Prepregnancy Obesity: United States, 2016–2019, CDC National Center for Health Statistics.
Prepregnancy obesity by age and education
The same CDC analysis found increases across each reported age group between 2016 and 2019. Among U.S. women under age 20, prepregnancy obesity rose from 18.1% to 20.5%. The percentage among women aged 20–29 increased from 27.2% to 30.4%, while the percentage among women aged 30–39 rose from 25.8% to 28.3%. For women aged 40 and over, it increased from 28.0% to 30.4%.
Education-level statistics for U.S. women aged 25 and over also show increases in every reported category:
- High-school education or less: 33.2% in 2016 and 36.5% in 2019.
- Some college education: 34.2% in 2016 and 37.5% in 2019.
- Associate’s degree: 30.7% in 2016 and 34.1% in 2019.
- Bachelor’s degree: 19.0% in 2016 and 21.5% in 2019.
- Master’s degree or higher: 15.3% in 2016 and 17.3% in 2019.
These figures are descriptive estimates for U.S. prepregnancy status in 2016–2019. They do not show that education alone determines nutritional status, and they should not be extended to other countries without comparable data.
Source: Increases in Prepregnancy Obesity: United States, 2016–2019, CDC National Center for Health Statistics.
Low birth weight as an outcome
Low birth weight is an important maternal and newborn nutrition outcome, but it is not a direct measure of a mother’s diet. The WHO notes that low birth weight has multiple causes, including maternal nutrition. In 2020, an estimated 19.8 million babies were born with low birth weight worldwide, representing 14.7% of newborns.
The global low-birth-weight prevalence was 15.0% in 2012 and 14.7% in 2020. The movement between those years is therefore modest in the reported series, and it should not be interpreted as proof that maternal nutrition was the only factor affecting the outcome. The estimates cover newborns globally and use 2020 as the measurement year, not 2026.
The low-birth-weight estimate and the anemia estimates answer different questions. One describes newborns at the global level, while the other describes anemia among women or pregnant women. They can be considered together as maternal and newborn nutrition indicators, but neither series can be used to calculate the other or to assign a single cause to an outcome.
Source: Joint low birthweight estimates, World Health Organization.
The global double burden of women’s nutrition
Women’s nutrition statistics also show that undernutrition and overweight coexist globally. UNICEF’s 2025 women’s nutrition summary reported that about 7% of women aged 18 and older were underweight worldwide, while more than 45% of adult women were overweight. These indicators cover adult women broadly, not pregnancy alone, and they use the period described by UNICEF’s 2025 summary.
Geographic concentration is also pronounced. South Asia, West and Central Africa, and Eastern and Southern Africa together were home to 60% of women with anemia in UNICEF’s regional summary. The same three regions were home to 65% of women with underweight. These shares describe where affected women lived, not the percentage of women within each region who had the condition.
Overweight prevalence was highest in North America, where it affected 70% of adult women. UNICEF reported overweight prevalence of 69% in the Middle East and North Africa and 68% in Latin America and the Caribbean. Those regional figures sit alongside the global underweight estimate and illustrate why maternal nutrition cannot be reduced to a single deficiency or a single weight category.
Source: Women’s nutrition, UNICEF DATA.