Countries by People using safely managed sanitation services, rural (% of rural population)

Ranking 2024

Values shown in %.

Analysis

This metric measures the percentage of people using safely managed sanitation services in rural areas, expressed as a share of the rural population. According to the source definition, it covers 'the percentage of people using improved sanitation facilities that are not shared with other households and where excreta are safely disposed of in situ or transported and treated offsite. Improved sanitation facilities include flush/pour flush to piped sewer systems, septic tanks or pit latrines: ventilated improved pit latrines, compositing toilets or pit latrines with slabs.' The unit is percent, and higher values indicate better outcomes. The dataset covers 100 countries, all with data from the last 7 years, and 100% of datapoints are classified as official-quality, exceeding the 70% threshold. No extreme outliers were identified using a 3-standard-deviation test, and average year-over-year change was 2.4%, well within the 50% volatility threshold. The full range runs from 1.23% to 100%, a spread of over 8,000%.

The top of the ranking is concentrated in Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia. Andorra leads at 100%, followed by Switzerland at 99.45% (rank 2), United Arab Emirates at 98.51% (rank 3), Netherlands at 97.47% (rank 4), and Austria at 96.34% (rank 5). Kyrgyz Republic appears at rank 6 with 95.11%, a notable placement among predominantly high-income European nations. Lithuania (rank 8, 93.06%), Sweden (rank 9, 91.59%), and the United Kingdom (rank 10, 91.59%) round out the top ten. These high-ranking countries generally reflect extensive rural sanitation infrastructure where waste is either safely managed on-site or transported and treated offsite.

The middle of the ranking includes a wide mix of geographies. India ranks 29th at 66.87%, reflecting improvement from historically low rural sanitation levels. Myanmar (rank 30, 64.31%) and Rwanda (rank 31, 64.25%) sit nearly adjacent. Bulgaria, an EU member state, ranks 32nd at 62.87%, below several lower-income countries. Thailand, despite its upper-middle-income classification, ranks 79th at 21.95%, lower than countries such as Malawi (rank 52, 47.29%) and Lesotho (rank 50, 47.82%). China ranks 62nd at 38.08%, below Bangladesh (rank 58, 41.93%) and Pakistan (rank 59, 41.26%). At the bottom, Chad (rank 99, 4.22%) and Ethiopia (rank 98, 4.68%) have fewer than 5% of rural residents with safely managed sanitation, and Korea, Dem. People's Rep. ranks last at 1.23%.

Several data limitations apply to this metric. Safely managed sanitation is a composite measure requiring data on both facility type and waste disposal outcomes; the latter is often estimated rather than directly measured, particularly in low-income rural settings. Coverage is limited to 100 countries, leaving a significant portion of the world's rural population unrepresented. Reporting reliability varies across country income groups, and countries with weaker statistical systems may have less precise estimates. The metric does not capture seasonal variation in sanitation access, informal or temporary facilities, or the quality of treatment at offsite facilities. Rankings should be interpreted with awareness that estimates for some countries may carry wider uncertainty margins than the precise figures suggest.

Methodology

Data are sourced from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code SH.STA.SMSS.RU.ZS, with a reference year of 2024. The metric is defined as 'the percentage of people using improved sanitation facilities that are not shared with other households and where excreta are safely disposed of in situ or transported and treated offsite. Improved sanitation facilities include flush/pour flush to piped sewer systems, septic tanks or pit latrines: ventilated improved pit latrines, compositing toilets or pit latrines with slabs.' The ranking covers 100 countries, all of which have data from within the last 7 years (100% recency). All 100 datapoints are classified as official quality, exceeding the 70% quality threshold. No extreme outliers were detected at the 3-standard-deviation level. Average year-over-year change across the dataset is 2.4%, indicating stable trends. The data range spans 1.23% to 100%, a spread of approximately 8,044%. Consistency across the latest reference year is 97%, with 97 of 100 countries reporting for 2024. None of the 100 countries in the ranking are microstates with populations below 1 million.

Sources

• World Bank