The East Asia/Pacific region has reached its goals on nutrition, in part due to the improvements contributed by China, the region’s most populous country. China has reduced its underweight prevalence from 19 percent to 8 percent between 1990 and 2002. China played the largest role in the world in decreasing the rate of children under five underweight between 1990 and 2004, halving the prevalence. This reduction of underweight prevalence has aided in the lowering of the under 5 mortality rate from 49 to 31 of 1000. They also have a low birthweight rate at 4%, a rate comparable to industrialized countries, and over 90% of households receive adequate iodized salts. However, large disparities exist between children in rural and urban areas, where 5 provinces in China leave 1.5 million children iodine deficient and susceptible to diseases. Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia are all projected to reach nutrition MDGs. Singapore has the lowest under five mortality rate of any nation, besides Iceland, in the world, at 3%. Cambodia has the highest rate of child mortality in the region (141 per 1,000 live births), while still its proportion of underweight children increased by 5 percent to 45% in 2000. Further nutrient indicators show that only 12 per cent of Cambodian babies are exclusively breastfed and only 14 per cent of households consume iodized salt.
Question: How many fewer children under 5 years old out of 1000 die now than before due to being underweight?
Answer: 18