Annual freshwater withdrawals, total (billion cubic meters) by country

What this measures

Annual freshwater withdrawals refer to total water withdrawals, not counting evaporation losses from storage basins. Withdrawals also include water from desalination plants in countries where they are a significant source. Withdrawals can exceed 100 percent of total renewable resources where extraction from nonrenewable aquifers or desalination plants is considerable or where there is significant water reuse. Withdrawals for agriculture and industry are total withdrawals for irrigation and livestock production and for direct industrial use (including withdrawals for cooling thermoelectric plants). Withdrawals for domestic uses include drinking water, municipal use or supply, and use for public services, commercial establishments, and homes.

Limitations: A common perception is that most of the available freshwater resources are visible (on the surfaces of lakes, reservoirs and rivers). However, this visible water represents only a tiny fraction of global freshwater resources, as most of it is stored in aquifers, with the largest stocks stored in solid form in the Antarctic and in Greenland's ice cap. The data on freshwater resources are based on estimates of runoff into rivers and recharge of groundwater. These estimates are based on different sources and refer to different years, so cross-country comparisons should be made with caution.

Each country's latest available year is shown; countries report on different schedules, so compare years before comparing values.

Ranking

Regions and income groups

More environment indicators

• Fertilizer consumption (% of fertilizer production)
• Fertilizer consumption (kilograms per hectare of arable land)
• Agricultural land (sq. km)
• Agricultural land (% of land area)
• Arable land (hectares)
• Arable land (hectares per person)
• Arable land (% of land area)
• Land under cereal production (hectares)
• Permanent cropland (% of land area)
• Forest area (sq. km)
• Forest area (% of land area)
• Agricultural irrigated land (% of total agricultural land)

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Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, ER.H2O.FWTL.K3, CC BY 4.0. Original source: AQUASTAT - FAO's Global Information System on Water and Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), uri: https://data.apps.fao.org/aquastat/, publisher: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), date accessed: 20240529 View on data.worldbank.org; the full definition is in the World Bank's metadata glossary.