Global Water Use and Stress
A growing global population and economic shift towards more resource-intensive consumption patterns means global freshwater use — that is, freshwater withdrawals for agriculture, industry and municipal uses — has increased nearly six-fold since 1900. This is shown in the chart.
Freshwater withdrawals by country
This breakdown of total freshwater withdrawals is shown by country in the chart over the period from 1967. In 2014, India had the largest freshwater withdrawals at over 760 billion cubic metres per year. This was followed by China at just over 600 billion m3 and the United States at around 480-90 billion m3.
Water withdrawals per capita
Levels of water use vary significantly across the world. The visualization shows the average level of water withdrawal per capita per year. As seen, there is large variance in levels of water withdrawal across the world – this can depend on a range of factors, including latitude, climate, and the importance of a country’s agricultural or industrial sector, as explored in the sections below.
GLOBAL CLEAN WATER SUPPLY
FIRST NATIONS COMMUNITIES - CANADA
