Sufficient and nourishing foods during the early years of a child's life are essential for optimal growth and healthy life. The existing disparities among rural-urban populations also affect the dietary pattern as well. Therefore, this study aims to identify the factors that contribute towards the rural-urban disparity in children's dietary diversity (CDD) and quantify their importance for the reduction of rural-urban disparities in achieving a minimum dietary diversity level. Using Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) data, version 2017-18, a non-linear decomposition analysis was performed. Eighty-one (81%) of the gap in CDD between rural-urban areas is attributed to the differences in the observed factors (endowments) and of these most of the difference is explained by three factors i.e. number of antenatal care visits (45%), maternal education (18%) and type of toilet facility (15%). There is a need to explore maternal education-related interventions to decrease the rural-urban gap regarding CDD as maternal education may affect CDD through different dimensions. Moreover, such programs should be initiated that may be helpful to enhance women's role in society, such as skilled education, well-paid job opportunities and better health facilities.

Keywords: Children’s dietary diversity; Count data modelling; Non-linear decomposition analysis; Rural-urban disparity.

© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2022, Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.