Countries by People using safely managed drinking water services, urban (% of urban population)
Nine countries, including France, Hungary, Kuwait, and Singapore, achieve 100% coverage of safely managed drinking water services for their urban populations. At the other end, Tuvalu ranks last at 10.4%, with Central African Republic (11.3%) and Sierra Leone (12.5%) close behind. The nearly 90-percentage-point gap between the top and bottom reflects the wide disparity in urban water infrastructure across the 104 countries covered.
Ranking 2024
Values shown in %.
| Rank | Country | % |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | France | 100.00 |
| 1 | Gibraltar | 100.00 |
| 1 | Hong Kong | 100.00 |
| 1 | Hungary | 100.00 |
| 1 | Kuwait | 100.00 |
| 1 | Macao | 100.00 |
| 1 | Monaco | 100.00 |
| 1 | San Marino | 100.00 |
| 1 | Singapore | 100.00 |
| 10 | Germany | 100.00 |
| 11 | Luxembourg | 99.80 |
| 12 | Spain | 99.65 |
| 13 | Australia | 99.65 |
| 14 | Israel | 99.47 |
| 15 | Lithuania | 99.32 |
| 16 | Chile | 99.24 |
| 17 | Czechia | 98.02 |
| 18 | Palau | 97.70 |
| 19 | United States | 97.68 |
| 20 | Portugal | 96.96 |
| 21 | Turkmenistan | 96.94 |
| 22 | Saint Martin (French part) | 96.63 |
| 23 | Croatia | 96.48 |
| 24 | China | 96.43 |
| 25 | Iran | 96.23 |
| 26 | Ireland | 96.12 |
| 27 | Romania | 94.95 |
| 28 | Uruguay | 94.59 |
| 29 | Samoa | 91.96 |
| 30 | Morocco | 91.25 |
| 31 | Brazil | 90.66 |
| 32 | Georgia | 89.31 |
| 33 | Uzbekistan | 88.92 |
| 34 | Ukraine | 88.28 |
| 35 | Montenegro | 87.32 |
| 36 | North Macedonia | 84.73 |
| 37 | India | 82.97 |
| 38 | Ecuador | 82.35 |
| 39 | Palestine | 81.86 |
| 40 | Colombia | 81.81 |
| 41 | Serbia | 81.60 |
| 42 | Kyrgyzstan | 81.01 |
| 43 | Costa Rica | 80.39 |
| 44 | Sri Lanka | 80.11 |
| 45 | Honduras | 78.44 |
| 46 | North Korea | 76.96 |
| 47 | Eswatini | 76.88 |
| 48 | Azerbaijan | 76.53 |
| 49 | Guyana | 76.04 |
| 50 | Vietnam | 75.82 |
| 51 | El Salvador | 75.71 |
| 52 | South Africa | 75.62 |
| 53 | Myanmar | 74.21 |
| 54 | Trinidad and Tobago | 73.08 |
| 55 | Paraguay | 72.21 |
| 56 | Algeria | 72.13 |
| 57 | Lesotho | 69.38 |
| 58 | Botswana | 68.88 |
| 59 | Gambia | 68.43 |
| 60 | Tunisia | 67.89 |
| 61 | Iraq | 64.60 |
| 62 | Suriname | 63.41 |
| 63 | Philippines | 62.22 |
| 64 | Bhutan | 61.51 |
| 65 | Ghana | 60.23 |
| 66 | Republic of Congo | 58.63 |
| 67 | Cambodia | 57.16 |
| 68 | Peru | 56.24 |
| 69 | Zimbabwe | 55.43 |
| 70 | Mongolia | 55.41 |
| 71 | Bangladesh | 54.31 |
| 72 | Rwanda | 53.43 |
| 73 | Fiji | 52.53 |
| 74 | Malawi | 52.41 |
| 75 | Guatemala | 51.72 |
| 76 | Côte d'Ivoire | 51.46 |
| 77 | Tonga | 50.88 |
| 78 | Laos | 50.85 |
| 79 | Zambia | 50.18 |
| 80 | Mozambique | 47.54 |
| 81 | Dominican Republic | 46.95 |
| 82 | Turks and Caicos Islands | 46.54 |
| 83 | Pakistan | 45.43 |
| 84 | Tanzania | 45.17 |
| 85 | Senegal | 41.13 |
| 86 | Sao Tome and Principe | 40.30 |
| 87 | Uganda | 39.97 |
| 88 | Madagascar | 38.57 |
| 89 | Ethiopia | 38.39 |
| 90 | Vanuatu | 38.25 |
| 91 | Afghanistan | 36.38 |
| 92 | Guinea-Bissau | 36.08 |
| 93 | Nigeria | 36.05 |
| 94 | Indonesia | 34.66 |
| 95 | Togo | 34.61 |
| 96 | Benin | 28.44 |
| 97 | DR Congo | 24.15 |
| 98 | Nepal | 23.62 |
| 99 | Kiribati | 20.87 |
| 100 | Nauru | 18.66 |
| 101 | Chad | 17.59 |
| 102 | Sierra Leone | 12.50 |
| 103 | Central African Republic | 11.25 |
| 104 | Tuvalu | 10.38 |
Analysis
This metric measures the percentage of urban residents using drinking water from an improved source that is accessible on premises, available when needed, and free from faecal and priority chemical contamination. Improved water sources include piped water, boreholes or tubewells, protected dug wells, protected springs, and packaged or delivered water. The indicator is expressed as a percentage of the urban population, where higher values indicate better coverage. Data come from the World Bank World Development Indicators (indicator code SH.H2O.SMDW.UR.ZS) for the reference year 2024. The dataset covers 104 countries, all with data from the last seven years, and 100% of datapoints are classified as official-quality, well above the 70% threshold. No extreme outliers were detected using a 3-standard-deviation test, and average year-over-year change across the dataset is just 0.7%, indicating high stability.
Nine countries share the top rank with a score of 100%: France, Gibraltar, Hong Kong SAR China, Hungary, Kuwait, Macao SAR China, Monaco, San Marino, and Singapore. Germany follows just behind at rank 10 with 99.996%, effectively at full coverage. Luxembourg (rank 11, 99.8%), Spain (rank 12, 99.7%), Australia (rank 13, 99.6%), and Israel (rank 14, 99.5%) round out the top fifteen alongside Lithuania and Chile. These high-ranking countries are concentrated in Western Europe, East Asia, and Oceania, along with a small number of high-income states in other regions. Chile (rank 16, 99.2%) is the only country in Latin America to appear in the top 20.
The middle of the ranking shows considerable variation. China ranks 24th at 96.4%, while India ranks 37th at 83.0%, illustrating the difference in urban water coverage between the two most populous countries. Brazil sits at rank 31 with 90.7%, notably ahead of Colombia (rank 40, 81.8%) and Peru (rank 68, 56.2%), despite all three being upper-middle-income Latin American economies. The Dominican Republic ranks 81st at 46.9%, well below regional peers. Indonesia, with a large urban population, ranks 94th at 34.7%. Nigeria ranks 93rd at 36.0% and Bangladesh 71st at 54.3%. One notable anomaly is Iraq at rank 61 with 64.6%, reported as a round number, which may reflect estimation rather than direct measurement. Palau (rank 18, 97.7%) ranks higher than the United States (rank 19, 97.7%), though their values differ by only 0.02 percentage points.
This metric has several limitations worth noting. Coverage is restricted to 104 countries, meaning many nations are excluded from the ranking entirely and global conclusions cannot be drawn. The safely managed threshold is stricter than basic access, so countries can report high rates of improved water access while scoring lower here due to requirements around on-premises availability, continuous supply, and water quality. Water quality testing methodology and reporting standards vary by country, which can affect comparability. Self-reported or modelled estimates, rather than direct measurement, may be used in some cases. The metric covers only urban populations; rural coverage is tracked separately and is typically lower, meaning national averages would differ from the figures shown here. Countries with very small urban populations may also see greater volatility in their estimates over time.
Methodology
Data are drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code SH.H2O.SMDW.UR.ZS, for the reference year 2024. The metric is defined as the percentage of people using drinking water from an improved source that is accessible on premises, available when needed and free from faecal and priority chemical contamination; improved water sources include piped water, boreholes or tubewells, protected dug wells, protected springs, and packaged or delivered water. The unit is percentage of urban population, where higher values indicate better coverage. The dataset includes 104 countries, all with data from within the last seven years (100% recency). All 104 datapoints are classified as official quality, exceeding the 70% threshold. No extreme outliers were identified at the 3-standard-deviation level. Average year-over-year change is 0.7%, well below the 50% volatility threshold, indicating high data stability. Values range from 10.4% (Tuvalu) to 100% (nine countries), representing an 863.6% spread. Data for 102 of 104 countries (98.1%) come from the latest reference year, with two countries using slightly earlier observations.