Feeding Profit: How food environments are failing children - 2025 Child Nutrition Report
This global report – the fourth in the series of UNICEF’s Child Nutrition Reports examines how unhealthy food environments are shaping children’s and adolescent’s diets and contributing to the surge in overweight and obesity. It presents data on the status, trends and inequities in overweight and obesity in children and adolescents, and projects when obesity will overtake underweight as the more prevalent form of malnutrition. It also reviews the latest evidence on children’s and adolescents’ diets and investigates the key forces driving unhealthy food environments. The report is accompanied by an annual statistical booklet that presents the latest key statistics on children’s and women’s nutrition.
The surge in childhood overweight and obesity
Childhood overweight and obesity is no longer a problem of a few countries – it is now a global crisis. One in five school-age children and adolescents aged 5–19 years are living with overweight, alongside one in twenty children under 5. Since 2000, the number of school-age children and adolescents living with overweight has more than doubled, increasing from 194 million to 391 million. The steepest increases are occurring in low- and middle-income countries, which now account for more than 80 per cent of all children and adolescents living with overweight. Even more alarming, obesity – a severe form of overweight now accounts for a growing share of all overweight cases.
Shifting Burdens: From underweight to obesity
The nutrition landscape is undergoing a significant and alarming transition. In 2025, a historic turning point was reached: obesity among 5–19-year-olds surpassed underweight for the first time (9.4 per cent versus 9.2 per cent). This marks a profound shift – one that signals the urgency to rethink how we protect children’s diets and health.
Diets loaded with unhealthy foods and beverages including ultra-processed foods
The foundation for healthy dietary practices is laid early in life. But many young children aged 6-23 months are not consuming even the most basic nutritious foods, such as vegetables or fruit; eggs or flesh foods. At the same time, a high percentage of young children are consuming unhealthy foods and beverages. These dietary patterns persist into adolescence – so much that unhealthy foods and beverages including those that are ultra-processed, are becoming staples in adolescent’s diets. Globally, a staggering 60 per cent of adolescents consumed more than one sugary food/beverage during the previous day, 32 per cent consumed soft drinks, and 25 per cent consumed more than one salty processed food during the previous day.
Marketing pressure on children
Unhealthy diets are being reinforced by powerful marketing. A global U-Report poll administered via SMS and social media platforms shows that three out of four young people saw junk food ads during the previous week. Exposure is highest in upper-middle-income countries but remains widespread everywhere, including in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. Marketing strategies are increasingly digital, targeted, and invisible to parents or regulators, giving the ultra-processed food and beverage industry unprecedented influence in shaping children’s diets.
The cost of inaction
The future trajectory of malnutrition in school-age children and adolescents is clear and alarming. Each year of delay in addressing malnutrition and unhealthy diets locks in higher future health costs, greater risks of chronic disease, and deeper inequalities. Without bold action to transform food environments, today’s generation of children will face a lifetime burden of poor health.
