Highlights

The 2018 Pakistan National Nutrition Survey (NNS 2018) is the largest national nutrition survey carried out in Pakistan. It is designed to provide policymakers, programme managers and academicians a unique set of nutrition-related data including environmental, anthropometric and biochemical indicators. The study group included children, women of reproductive age (WRA) and adolescent boys and girls. NNS 2018 is the fifth national nutrition survey since 1965, but the first to yield district-representative data and to include adolescents and a component on water.

NNS 2018 employed a cross-sectional survey design at the household level. It used a mixed-method data collection methodology with both quantitative and qualitative approaches.

The sample design provides district level estimation at the national level for urban and rural localities and by gender, for the four provinces (Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, KP); and for the regions (Azad Jammu and Kashmir, AJK, and Gilgit-Baltistan, GB), KP-NMD and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).