Countries by People using at least basic drinking water services, urban (% of urban population)

Thirty-six countries, including Germany, Brazil, Singapore, and the United Kingdom, achieve 100% urban basic drinking water access, the highest possible score on this metric. At the other end, the Central African Republic ranks 184th with just 48.06%, meaning roughly half its urban population lacks even basic water access. The 52-percentage-point gap between the top and bottom reflects the wide variation in urban water infrastructure across 184 countries.

Population & Health category

Ranking 2024

Values shown in %.

Countries by People using at least basic drinking water services, urban (% of urban population)
Rank	Country	%
1	Andorra	100.00
1	Austria	100.00
1	Belgium	100.00
1	Bermuda	100.00
1	Brazil	100.00
1	Denmark	100.00
1	Estonia	100.00
1	Finland	100.00
1	France	100.00
1	Germany	100.00
1	Gibraltar	100.00
1	Greece	100.00
1	Hong Kong	100.00
1	Hungary	100.00
1	Iceland	100.00
1	Israel	100.00
1	Kuwait	100.00
1	Laos	100.00
1	Lithuania	100.00
1	Luxembourg	100.00
1	Macao	100.00
1	Malta	100.00
1	Mauritius	100.00
1	Mexico	100.00
1	Monaco	100.00
1	Netherlands	100.00
1	New Zealand	100.00
1	Norway	100.00
1	Romania	100.00
1	Samoa	100.00
1	San Marino	100.00
1	Singapore	100.00
1	Switzerland	100.00
1	Thailand	100.00
1	United Arab Emirates	100.00
1	United Kingdom	100.00
37	Portugal	99.98
38	United States	99.98
39	Australia	99.97
40	Croatia	99.94
41	Saint Martin (French part)	99.92
42	Colombia	99.91
43	Spain	99.91
44	Belarus	99.89
45	Armenia	99.89
46	Paraguay	99.89
47	Turkmenistan	99.86
48	Costa Rica	99.85
49	Bhutan	99.85
50	Azerbaijan	99.83
51	Uruguay	99.82
52	Chile	99.82
53	Argentina	99.82
54	Tonga	99.81
55	Iraq	99.81
56	Sweden	99.79
57	Cyprus	99.73
58	Bulgaria	99.69
59	Palau	99.62
60	Slovakia	99.61
61	Georgia	99.58
62	Maldives	99.54
63	Kyrgyzstan	99.49
64	Trinidad and Tobago	99.48
65	Jordan	99.41
66	Sint Maarten (Dutch part)	99.31
67	Turks and Caicos Islands	99.25
68	Honduras	99.22
69	Bolivia	99.21
70	Montenegro	99.19
71	Vietnam	99.18
72	Ghana	99.08
73	Russia	99.04
74	Saudi Arabia	98.93
75	Belize	98.88
76	Latvia	98.87
77	Czechia	98.81
78	Bangladesh	98.76
79	Antigua and Barbuda	98.74
80	Iran	98.73
81	Suriname	98.71
82	Fiji	98.68
83	Malaysia	98.66
84	Egypt	98.65
85	Panama	98.48
86	Palestine	98.42
87	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	98.40
88	Tunisia	98.31
89	Morocco	98.27
90	Philippines	98.26
91	North Macedonia	98.25
92	Canada	98.25
93	Tuvalu	98.17
94	Eswatini	98.14
95	Uzbekistan	98.12
96	Kazakhstan	98.00
97	Dominican Republic	97.92
98	Moldova	97.89
99	Nauru	97.84
100	Peru	97.82
101	South Africa	97.82
102	Ecuador	97.82
103	Timor-Leste	97.66
104	Sri Lanka	97.61
105	Saint Lucia	97.49
106	China	97.33
107	Vanuatu	97.23
108	Dominica	97.14
109	India	97.12
110	North Korea	96.91
111	Afghanistan	96.89
112	Botswana	96.78
113	Guatemala	96.68
114	Ireland	96.62
115	Türkiye	96.41
116	Namibia	96.16
117	Mongolia	96.11
118	Cuba	96.08
119	Myanmar	96.00
120	Albania	95.66
121	Poland	95.64
122	Syria	95.60
123	Serbia	95.48
124	Guyana	95.48
125	Cayman Islands	95.46
126	Senegal	95.45
127	El Salvador	95.17
128	Cabo Verde	95.08
129	Nigeria	95.08
130	Indonesia	94.96
131	Tajikistan	94.89
132	Bosnia and Herzegovina	94.88
133	Algeria	94.81
134	Lesotho	94.72
135	Oman	94.70
136	Cambodia	94.06
137	Zimbabwe	93.66
138	Mali	93.52
139	Guinea	93.26
140	Pakistan	92.91
141	Gabon	92.36
142	Nepal	92.32
143	Gambia	91.77
144	Solomon Islands	91.26
145	Burundi	91.22
146	Ukraine	90.85
147	Mauritania	90.41
148	Zambia	90.33
149	Jamaica	90.09
150	Kiribati	90.03
151	Comoros	89.93
152	Eritrea	89.74
153	Mozambique	89.40
154	Kenya	88.89
155	Côte d'Ivoire	88.74
156	Yemen	88.52
157	Rwanda	87.83
158	Niger	87.28
159	Republic of Congo	87.09
160	Tanzania	86.20
161	Liberia	86.04
162	Malawi	85.99
163	Marshall Islands	85.75
164	Haiti	85.45
165	Papua New Guinea	84.36
166	Djibouti	84.30
167	Somalia	83.57
168	Ethiopia	83.48
169	Angola	81.73
170	Sierra Leone	81.71
171	Cameroon	81.56
172	Burkina Faso	81.49
173	Uganda	79.99
174	Sao Tome and Principe	79.33
175	Madagascar	78.21
176	Equatorial Guinea	78.08
177	Chad	77.86
178	Benin	75.90
179	Sudan	73.92
180	Togo	73.64
181	Guinea-Bissau	72.69
182	South Sudan	66.14
183	DR Congo	59.31
184	Central African Republic	48.06

Analysis

This metric measures the share of urban residents using at least basic drinking water services, expressed as a percentage of the urban population. According to the source definition, the indicator encompasses both people using basic water services as well as those using safely managed water services. Basic drinking water services is defined as drinking water from an improved source, provided collection time is not more than 30 minutes for a round trip. Improved water sources include piped water, boreholes, or tube wells, among others. The dataset covers 184 countries, with 180 of 184 (97.8%) having data from the last seven years and 100% of data points classified as official. The data year is 2024, with 178 of 184 countries (96.7%) reporting in the latest year. The ranking range spans 48.06% to 100%, a spread of 108.1%, and the dataset contains 32 extreme outliers at the 3-standard-deviation threshold.

At rank 1, 36 countries share a perfect score of 100%, a group that is geographically and economically diverse. It includes high-income European nations such as Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, and Switzerland, alongside countries like Brazil (rank 1, 100%), Thailand (rank 1, 100%), Lao PDR (rank 1, 100%), and Kuwait (rank 1, 100%). Just below the top tier, Portugal ranks 37th at 99.98%, the United States ranks 38th at 99.98%, Australia ranks 39th at 99.97%, and Colombia ranks 42nd at 99.91%. These high-ranked countries consistently show values above 99%, indicating that near-universal urban basic water access is achievable across a range of income levels and regions.

In the middle of the ranking, countries such as South Africa (rank 101, 97.82%), China (rank 106, 97.33%), and India (rank 109, 97.12%) sit close together despite large differences in population and geography. Further down, Ukraine ranks 146th at 90.85%, and Jamaica ranks 149th at 90.09%. The lower portion of the ranking includes several sub-Saharan African nations: Uganda ranks 173rd at 79.99%, Benin ranks 178th at 75.90%, Sudan ranks 179th at 73.92%, South Sudan ranks 182nd at 66.14%, and the Democratic Republic of Congo ranks 183rd at 59.31%. A notable counterintuitive placement is Ireland, which ranks only 114th at 96.62%, lower than countries such as Ghana (rank 72, 99.08%) and Bangladesh (rank 78, 98.76%).

This metric has several important limitations. It measures access to basic water services, not water quality or safety beyond the source type and collection time criteria. A household can be counted as having basic access while still receiving water that is contaminated at the point of use. The metric also does not capture service reliability, cost, or continuity of supply. Urban boundaries vary by country, which can affect who is counted. Countries with large informal urban settlements may report differently depending on whether those areas are included in the urban population denominator. The 32 extreme outliers flagged in the dataset and the use of modeled estimates for some countries may affect comparability across rankings.

Methodology

Data are drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code SH.H2O.BASW.UR.ZS, for the data year 2024. The metric measures the percentage of people using at least basic water services, and the source definition is applied as follows: the indicator encompasses both people using basic water services as well as those using safely managed water services. Basic drinking water services is defined as drinking water from an improved source, provided collection time is not more than 30 minutes for a round trip. Improved water sources include piped water, boreholes or tube wells, among others. The ranking covers 184 countries. Of these, 180 of 184 (97.8%) have data from the last seven years, and 100% of data points are classified as official, exceeding the 70% quality threshold. The latest year (2024) includes data for 178 of 184 countries (96.7%). The value range is 48.06% to 100%, a spread of 108.1%. The dataset contains 32 extreme outliers at the 3-standard-deviation threshold. Average year-over-year change is 0.2%, indicating high stability. No microstates under 1 million population are present in the dataset.

Sources

World Bank