Water quality statistics span both access to safely managed drinking water and measured conditions in rivers, aquifers and public systems. The figures below distinguish service definitions, monitoring results, reported compliance and forecasts by period and geography.
Key Water Quality Statistics
The most broadly useful water quality figures include:
- In 2022, 73% of the global population used safely managed drinking-water services.
- In 2022, 2.2 billion people globally lacked safely managed drinking water.
- Between 2015 and 2022, global safely managed drinking-water coverage rose from 69% to 73%.
- Between 2015 and 2022, rural safely managed drinking-water coverage increased from 56% to 62% globally.
- Between 2015 and 2022, urban safely managed drinking-water coverage increased from 80% to 81% globally.
- In 2022, 115 million people globally collected untreated drinking water from surface water.
- Between 2015 and 2022, Sub-Saharan Africa’s safely managed drinking-water coverage rose from 27% to 31%.
- Between 2015 and 2022, Central and Southern Asia’s coverage rose from 60% to 68%.
- Between 2017 and 2023, the share of assessed water bodies with good ambient quality fell from 57% to 56%.
- In 2023, 120 countries reported ambient water quality, compared with 89 in 2022.
- By 2030, 4.8 billion people could be at risk if water-quality monitoring does not improve.
- In 2022, 154,106 active public water systems operated in the United States.
- In 2022, 73% of U.S. public water systems had no reported drinking-water-standard violations.
- In 2022, 4% of U.S. public water systems violated a health-based drinking-water standard.
- In 2022, 31,542 U.S. public water systems failed at least one monitoring or reporting requirement.
- Between 1992 and 2004, USGS nutrient assessments covered 51 major U.S. river basins and aquifer systems.
- Between 1992 and 2004, USGS collected groundwater samples from more than 5,100 wells in 180 study areas.
- For 2022 data reported in 2024, 107 countries reported wastewater statistics covering 73.2% of the global population.
Contents
- Global safely managed drinking-water statistics
- Rural and urban water-quality access trends
- Regional and country drinking-water data
- Ambient water quality and monitoring gaps
- U.S. public drinking-water compliance statistics
- Nutrients, groundwater and wastewater measurement
Global Safely Managed Drinking-Water Statistics
The WHO and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) defines safely managed drinking water as an improved source located at home, available when needed and free from contamination. In 2022, the JMP estimated that 73% of the global population used services meeting that definition, while 27%, or 2.2 billion people, did not.
The 2.2 billion people outside the safely managed category were distributed across distinct service levels:
- 1.5 billion people used basic services in 2022, meaning the service did not meet the safely managed conditions.
- 292 million people used limited services in 2022, requiring more than 30 minutes for collection.
- 296 million people used unimproved sources, including unprotected wells or springs, in 2022.
- 115 million people collected untreated water directly from rivers, lakes or other surface water in 2022.
These are service classifications, not contaminant concentrations or direct tests at every household tap. The source is Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000–2022: special focus on gender.
Global coverage increased from 69% in 2015 to 73% in 2022. The JMP reported coverage data for 142 countries in 2022, and its assessment classified 32 countries as on track for universal access above 99% by 2030, 78 as progressing too slowly and 16 as experiencing decreasing coverage.
The estimated global rate of progress needed to meet the 2030 safely managed drinking-water target was six times the observed rate in the 2022 assessment. This is a modelled SDG progress requirement, not a treatment-performance measurement.
Rural and Urban Water-Quality Access Trends
The global service gap differs by settlement type. From 2015 to 2022, rural safely managed coverage rose from 56% to 62%, while urban coverage rose from 80% to 81%.
| Population | 2015 | 2022 | Measure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rural population | 56% | 62% | Safely managed drinking-water coverage |
| Urban population | 80% | 81% | Safely managed drinking-water coverage |
| Global population | 69% | 73% | Safely managed drinking-water coverage |
The rural and urban percentages are comparable JMP estimates for their respective populations, but safely managed status still combines location, availability and contamination-free service conditions. The same source is Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000–2022.
Regional trends also varied between 2015 and 2022:
- Sub-Saharan Africa increased from 27% to 31% safely managed coverage.
- Central and Southern Asia increased from 60% to 68%.
- Eastern and South-Eastern Asia increased from 74% to 79%.
- Northern Africa and Western Asia increased from 75% to 77%.
These figures describe regional safely managed drinking-water service coverage, not the prevalence of a single pollutant. They should not be substituted for laboratory measurements of household or environmental water.
Regional and Country Drinking-Water Data
At-least-basic coverage is broader than safely managed coverage and does not by itself confirm contamination-free water. The JMP country estimates show how the broader service measure changed between 2015 and 2022.
| Geography | 2015 | 2022 | Measure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Afghanistan | 62% | 82% | Total at-least-basic coverage |
| Albania | 93% | 95% | Total at-least-basic coverage |
| Algeria | 93% | 95% | Total at-least-basic coverage |
| Angola | 54% | 58% | Total at-least-basic coverage |
| Benin | 66% | 67% | Total at-least-basic coverage |
| Bangladesh | 97% | 98% | Total at-least-basic coverage |
| Bhutan | 97% | >99% | Total at-least-basic coverage |
| Australia | >99% | >99% | Total at-least-basic coverage |
| Austria | >99% | >99% | Total at-least-basic coverage |
For Afghanistan, the 2022 JMP table also distributed the total population across 1% limited, 10% unimproved and 6% surface-water service categories. Percentages may not sum exactly to 100 because of rounding and the at-least-basic complement.
The report uses “>99%” for Bhutan, Australia and Austria, so their exact values are not specified. All country figures are estimates, and the source is Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000–2022.
Ambient Water Quality Statistics and Monitoring Gaps
Ambient water quality concerns rivers, lakes, groundwater and other water bodies rather than household service access. UN-Water’s SDG indicator 6.3.2 uses five water-quality parameters and classifies the proportion of assessed water bodies with good ambient quality using national or subnational standards.
The share classified as good fell from 57% of assessed water bodies in 2017 to 56% in 2023. The 2023 UN-Water data drive included 120 reporting countries, up from 89 in 2022, so changing monitoring coverage can affect comparisons.
Only assessed and reported water bodies are represented in the global estimate. The source is Progress on Ambient Water Quality – 2024 Update.
UN-Water projects that 4.8 billion people could be at risk by 2030 if water-quality and water-body monitoring are not improved. This is a conditional forecast, not a current disease count or a measurement of people already exposed.
U.S. Public Drinking-Water Compliance Statistics
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2022 national report covers public water systems under its reporting framework and excludes private wells. In calendar year 2022, the United States had 154,106 active public water systems.
| 2022 U.S. public-system measure | Systems | Share or definition |
|---|---|---|
| No reported drinking-water-standard violations | 112,544 | 73% of systems |
| At least one drinking-water-standard violation | 41,561 | 27% of systems |
| Health-based standard violation | 6,863 | 4% of systems |
| Monitoring or reporting failure | 31,542 | Nearly 20% of systems |
| Enforcement priority in at least one quarter | 4,935 | 3% of systems |
Any-standard violations include categories beyond health-based contamination violations. Monitoring and reporting failures can also limit what is known about contaminants, and reported violations depend on primacy-agency reporting.
Small systems serving 3,300 or fewer people accounted for 94% of systems in enforcement-priority status in 2022. That percentage describes the composition of priority systems, not the share of all small systems with violations.
EPA and primacy agencies initiated at least one formal enforcement action at 2,429 systems and at least one informal enforcement action at 25,923 systems in 2022. A system can receive multiple actions, so action counts are not equivalent to unique violations.
The report recorded 23,862 systems returned to compliance in 2022, but that status does not imply every underlying water-quality issue was permanently eliminated. EPA’s Compliance Advisors provided technical assistance to 80 small drinking-water systems during 2022.
These figures come from Providing Safe Drinking Water in America: 2022 National Public Water Systems Report.
Nutrients, Groundwater and Wastewater Measurement Statistics
USGS nutrient statistics provide a structured historical assessment rather than current measurements for every U.S. water body. The National Water-Quality Assessment synthesis covered 51 major U.S. river basins and aquifer systems using data from 1992 to 2004.
Its sampling network included:
- Monthly and high- or low-flow samples from 499 stream sites, usually for at least two years, during 1992–2001.
- Biological-community assessments at about 1,400 stream sites during the 1992–2004 synthesis.
- Groundwater samples from more than 5,100 wells in 180 study areas during the synthesis.
- A groundwater design of 30 wells per study area across those 180 areas.
USGS reported that nutrient concentrations remained the same or increased in many streams and aquifers across the United States since the early 1990s. This statement applies to many assessed systems, not every stream or aquifer, and the source is USGS Circular 1350: Nutrients in the Nation’s Streams and Groundwater.
Wastewater statistics have a separate reporting boundary. The 2024 UN comparison, based on 2022 data, included 107 countries reporting wastewater statistics covering 73.2% of the global population.
| Wastewater measure | 2022 reporting set | Coverage limitation |
|---|---|---|
| Total wastewater generated | 187.024 billion cubic metres | Reported-country total; not a global total |
| Total wastewater generated comparison column | 85 countries; 46.0% of global population | Coverage differs from the overall reporting line |
| Industrial wastewater generated | 35.963 billion cubic metres | Industrial subtotal, not household or total wastewater |
These wastewater figures are reported-country estimates and should not be extrapolated to the entire world without an explicit model. The source is Progress on Wastewater Treatment – 2024 Update.