Background: Stunting is a global health concern. It has consequences on childrnsurvival, growth, and development. The absolute level of stunting has been decreasingrnin Ethiopia although the prevalence is still high varying across socioeconomicrndeterminants and geographical location with a larger burden among therndisadvantaged group and the rural areas. The objective of the study was to explain thernrural-urban disparity in the prevalence of stunting and explore the level andrndeterminants of wealth related inequality in stunting in Ethiopia.rnMethod: Data were drawn from the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey.rnThe dependent variables were stunting and wealth related inequality in stunting. Arnmultivariate decomposition analysis was employed to decompose the urban-ruralrndisparity in the prevalence of stunting into meaningful components. A concentrationrnindex was used to quantify the magnitude of inequalities in stunting and multilevelrnlinear regression model was used to identify determinants of socioeconomic inequalityrnin stunting. STATA version 14 software was used for data management and analysis.rnResult: Differences in observed characteristics of children, maternal characteristics,rntheir household and environment explained 82.8% of the gap in the prevalence ofrnstunting between rural and urban areas. A further decomposition of the gap in stuntingrnshowed that differences in maternal characteristics contributed to 36.7% of the gap inrnstunting, variation in household characteristics explained 31.7% of the gap and 13.6%rnof the gap in stunting was due to differences in child characteristics in the two areas.rnThe study also found a significant pro-poor wealth related absolute inequality inrnstunting (-0.133). Age of child, maternal education level, maternal age and place ofrnresidence were found to be significantly associated with socioeconomic inequality inrnstunting.rnConclusion: Rural-urban disparities in child stunting need to focus principally onrnbridging gaps in socio-economic situations of rural and urban women and householdsrnand improving the quality of rural infrastructure. Health policy makers should workrntogether across sectors and develop strategies for effective inter sectoral actions tornadequately address the social determinants of inequity and reduce inequalities inrnstunting.