Countries by Annual freshwater withdrawals, industry (% of total freshwater withdrawal)

Montenegro leads all 179 countries ranked, with 94.20% of its total freshwater withdrawals going to industry. At the opposite end, six countries including Djibouti and Dominica report 0.00%, meaning industry accounts for none of their recorded freshwater use. The gap between top and bottom reflects fundamentally different economic structures and water-use priorities across the ranking.

Environment category

Ranking 2022

Values shown in %.

Countries by Annual freshwater withdrawals, industry (% of total freshwater withdrawal)
Rank	Country	%
1	Montenegro	94.20
2	Estonia	94.19
3	Austria	93.31
4	Belgium	84.11
5	Slovenia	77.99
6	Serbia	77.92
7	Canada	75.81
8	Hungary	75.66
9	Moldova	73.06
10	Puerto Rico	72.22
11	Bulgaria	71.26
12	Iceland	71.15
13	Netherlands	70.25
14	France	68.13
15	Poland	65.49
16	Sweden	61.27
17	Germany	54.30
18	Czechia	53.67
19	Lebanon	48.91
20	Romania	48.34
21	United States	47.20
22	Croatia	46.75
23	Finland	46.41
24	Lesotho	45.66
25	Singapore	45.07
26	Ukraine	44.84
27	Russia	44.79
28	Papua New Guinea	42.74
29	Slovakia	39.84
30	Norway	39.82
31	Switzerland	37.09
32	Liberia	36.60
33	Mongolia	35.94
34	South Sudan	34.19
35	Angola	33.95
36	Trinidad and Tobago	33.64
37	Ireland	31.79
38	Belarus	30.41
39	Malaysia	29.90
40	Portugal	29.66
41	Lithuania	29.28
42	Seychelles	27.74
43	Georgia	27.41
44	Republic of Congo	26.17
45	Sierra Leone	26.15
46	New Zealand	23.98
47	Kazakhstan	23.85
48	South Africa	23.16
49	Italy	22.75
50	Suriname	22.00
51	Antigua and Barbuda	21.74
52	DR Congo	21.47
53	Belize	20.99
54	Gambia	20.87
55	Côte d'Ivoire	20.83
56	Spain	18.95
57	Australia	18.59
58	Guatemala	18.14
59	China	17.73
60	Latvia	17.58
61	Central African Republic	16.55
62	South Korea	16.43
63	Japan	16.35
64	Tajikistan	16.26
65	Nigeria	15.75
66	Equatorial Guinea	15.15
67	Brazil	15.01
68	Philippines	14.94
69	Uruguay	13.39
70	North Korea	13.23
71	Benin	12.82
72	Oman	12.43
73	United Kingdom	12.00
74	Chad	11.79
75	Botswana	11.39
76	Fiji	11.31
77	Iraq	10.65
78	Cuba	10.63
79	Argentina	10.59
80	Gabon	10.14
81	Cameroon	9.61
82	Jamaica	9.50
83	Palestine	8.90
84	Mexico	8.86
85	Zambia	8.27
86	Uganda	7.85
87	Barbados	7.65
88	Kenya	7.51
89	Dominican Republic	7.27
90	Costa Rica	7.12
91	Honduras	7.09
92	Egypt	6.97
93	Guinea	6.74
94	Namibia	6.62
95	Ghana	6.49
96	Peru	6.43
97	Sri Lanka	6.42
98	Paraguay	6.38
99	Guinea-Bissau	6.26
100	Cyprus	5.88
101	Ecuador	5.54
102	Saudi Arabia	5.39
103	Burundi	5.36
104	Chile	5.13
105	Maldives	5.08
106	Comoros	5.00
107	Armenia	4.88
108	El Salvador	4.87
109	Thailand	4.85
110	Denmark	4.82
111	Libya	4.80
112	Turkmenistan	4.64
113	Azerbaijan	4.61
114	Kyrgyzstan	4.39
115	Qatar	4.30
116	Colombia	4.15
117	Indonesia	4.10
118	Israel	4.00
119	Luxembourg	3.83
120	Vietnam	3.75
121	Syria	3.67
122	Haiti	3.52
123	Malawi	3.52
124	Venezuela	3.51
125	Jordan	3.34
126	Bahrain	3.25
127	Togo	2.83
128	Greece	2.78
129	Uzbekistan	2.70
130	Burkina Faso	2.65
131	Mauritania	2.36
132	Laos	2.31
133	India	2.23
134	Bangladesh	2.15
135	Cabo Verde	2.12
136	Morocco	2.03
137	Türkiye	2.01
138	Eswatini	1.94
139	Kuwait	1.86
140	Yemen	1.82
141	Tunisia	1.73
142	Mozambique	1.70
143	Rwanda	1.66
144	Zimbabwe	1.66
145	Algeria	1.65
146	Malta	1.62
147	Mauritius	1.58
148	Cambodia	1.51
149	Niger	1.50
150	Myanmar	1.49
151	Sao Tome and Principe	1.47
152	North Macedonia	1.45
153	Bolivia	1.45
154	Guyana	1.41
155	Albania	1.38
156	Madagascar	1.19
157	Iran	1.18
158	United Arab Emirates	1.14
159	Bhutan	0.89
160	Afghanistan	0.83
161	Pakistan	0.76
162	Panama	0.51
163	Ethiopia	0.48
164	Tanzania	0.48
165	Nepal	0.31
166	Sudan	0.28
167	Eritrea	0.17
168	Timor-Leste	0.17
169	Mali	0.08
170	Somalia	0.06
171	Nicaragua	0.05
172	Senegal	0.05
173	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	0.02
174	Djibouti	0.00
174	Dominica	0.00
174	Grenada	0.00
174	Monaco	0.00
174	Saint Kitts and Nevis	0.00
174	Saint Lucia	0.00

Analysis

This metric measures the share of total annual freshwater withdrawals used by industry, expressed as a percentage. According to the World Bank World Development Indicators (indicator code ER.H2O.FWIN.ZS, data year 2022), 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 reuse. The ranking covers 179 countries, all with data from within the last 7 years, and 100% of datapoints are classified as official quality. The dataset contains 24 extreme outliers by a 3-sigma threshold, and the full range runs from 0.00% to 94.20%, a spread of 999%.

The top of the ranking is dominated by European countries with large industrial economies relative to their agricultural sectors. Montenegro ranks 1st at 94.20%, followed closely by Estonia at 94.19% and Austria at 93.31%. Belgium ranks 4th at 84.11% and Slovenia 5th at 77.99%. Canada (rank 7, 75.81%) is the only non-European country in the top 10, alongside Hungary (rank 8, 75.66%) and Moldova (rank 9, 73.06%). These high shares indicate that within each country's total freshwater budget, industry is the dominant consuming sector compared to agriculture and domestic use.

In the middle of the ranking, countries such as China (rank 59, 17.73%), Japan (rank 63, 16.35%), and Brazil (rank 67, 15.01%) sit far below their economic weight might suggest, reflecting large agricultural water demands that dilute industry's share. A notable anomaly appears with Lesotho at rank 24 (45.66%), placing it above much larger industrialized economies. Singapore ranks 25th at 45.07%, consistent with its limited agricultural activity. At the lower end, India ranks 133rd at just 2.23% and Pakistan 161st at 0.76%, reflecting the outsized role of irrigation in those countries' total withdrawals. Six countries at joint rank 174 report exactly 0.00%: Djibouti, Dominica, Grenada, Monaco, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Lucia.

This metric captures the share of industrial use within total withdrawals, not the absolute volume of water consumed by industry. A country with very low total withdrawals dominated by industry can rank higher than a country withdrawing vastly more water in absolute terms but using most of it for agriculture. Reporting methods and sectoral definitions vary across countries, and data year alignment across all 179 countries may not be identical despite the 2022 label. The 24 extreme outliers identified at the 3-sigma threshold warrant particular scrutiny. Countries with significant desalination or nonrenewable aquifer use may have distorted denominators, affecting the percentage calculation.

Methodology

Data are sourced from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code ER.H2O.FWIN.ZS, for the reference year 2022. The metric measures industry's share of total annual freshwater withdrawals as a percentage. Per the source definition: 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 reuse. The ranking includes 179 countries, all meeting the recency threshold of data within the last 7 years (100% recency rate). All datapoints are classified as official quality (100%). The dataset shows a value range of 0.00% to 94.20% (999% spread) and 24 extreme outliers were identified using a 3-sigma threshold. Average year-over-year volatility is 6.4%, well within the 50% acceptable threshold. Consistency across the latest year is 98.9% (177 of 179 countries).

Sources

World Bank