A study by Ouyang and Pinstrup-Andersen (2012:1456) on health inequality between ethnic minorities and the Han populations in China states, "Health and nutrition status in terms of height-for-age and weight-for-age actually improved for both the Han group and the minority group, but the improvement is much smaller for the minorities, and hence the growing health gap". Another study conducted in China has made similar conclusions and suggested that stunting, wasting and being underweight were distinct indicators of the nutritional status of children and chronic growth retardation is the major type of child protein-energy malnutrition in poor rural minority areas of Yunnan Province, China. The country has a small population of indigenous peoples, approximately 100,000 with most concentrated in two provinces in one of the world's poorest countries with low human development index (UNDP 2004).