Water Use

Produced by the SASI group (Sheffield) and Mark Newman (Michigan)

Four thousand cubic kilometres of

water are used by people each year
around the world, for domestic,
agricultural and other industrial
purposes. This does not include nonconsumptive uses such as energy
generation, mining, and recreation.
China, India and the United States use
the most water. These are also the
territories where the most people live.
But water use per person is about
three times higher in the United States
than it is in India and China.
Whilst everybody needs water, people
use hugely varying quantities. On
average, people living in Central Africa
each use only 2% of the water used
by each person living in North
America.
Territory size shows the proportion of worldwide water
use occuring there.
MOST AND LEAST WATER USAGE

Land area
Technical notes
Data are from the United Nations Environment
Programme.
See website for further information.

Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Territory
Bangladesh
Bahrain
Mauritius
Belgium
Japan
Netherlands
Pakistan
Maldives
Viet Nam
India

Value
64
44
31
27
24
24
23
23
23
22

Rank
191
192
194
193
195
196
197
198
199
200

Territory
Djibouti
Namibia
Angola
Mongolia
Botswana
Chad
Papua New Guinea
Dem Republic Congo
Congo
Central African Republic

WORLD WATER USE

Value
0.04
0.03
0.03
0.03
0.03
0.02
0.02
0.02
0.01
<0.01

Eastern Asia 17%

South America 5%
Eastern Europe 4%

Middle East 11%

North America 16%
Asia Pacific 9%
Western Europe 6%
Southern Asia 24%

Japan 2%
Central Africa 0.076%
Southeastern Africa 1%
Northern Africa 4%

centimetres of water use per year (cubic centimetres of water volume per square centimetre of land area)

... the right to water emanates from and is indispensable for an adequate standard of living as it is one of the
most fundamental conditions for survival.
Cline Dubreuil, 2006
www.worldmapper.org

Copyright 2006 SASI Group (University of Sheffield) and Mark Newman (University of Michigan)

Map 104