Ranked: Water Supply vs. Use Per Person by Country

Ranked: Water Supply vs. Use Per Person by Country

Freshwater abundance and water use tell two very different stories.

This graphic compares renewable freshwater resources with freshwater withdrawals per person, showing where water is most abundant and where the most is drawn, based on figures from Our World in Data and Statista.

Where Freshwater Is Most Abundant

Iceland stands in a category of its own, with 15.7 million cubic feet of renewable freshwater resources per person. Guyana follows at 10.4 million, while Suriname ranks third at 5.6 million.

Rank	Country	Cubic Feet of Freshwater Per Person
1	Iceland	15.7M
2	Guyana	10.4M
3	Suriname	5.6M
4	Bhutan	3.5M
5	Papua New Guinea	2.8M
6	Canada	2.6M
7	Norway	2.5M
8	Gabon	2.4M
9	New Zealand	2.3M
10	Solomon Islands	2.0M
11	Peru	1.7M
12	Chile	1.6M
13	Colombia	1.5M
14	Belize	1.3M
15	Liberia	1.3M
16	Congo	1.3M
17	Vanuatu	1.1M
18	Fiji	1.1M
19	Panama	1.1M
20	Russia	1.1M
21	Venezuela	1.0M
22	Central African Republic	977K
23	Uruguay	960K
24	Brazil	951K
25	Laos	890K
26	Bolivia	888K
27	Ecuador	877K
28	Nicaragua	820K
29	Costa Rica	785K
30	Sierra Leone	683K

Canada, Norway, and New Zealand also rank among the top 10, each with more than two million cubic feet available per person. Many of the countries near the top combine relatively small populations with extensive rivers, lakes, heavy rainfall, or glacial systems.

Brazil shows how much population can change the ranking. Despite being home to vast freshwater resources, the country ranks 24th on a per-person basis, at 951,000 cubic feet.

The U.S. ranks 54th, with 297,000 cubic feet of renewable freshwater per person. That relatively modest ranking becomes more striking when compared with how much water the country withdraws: on the other side of the chart, the U.S. jumps to sixth.

Which Countries Draw the Most Water?

The ranking shifts sharply when looking at freshwater withdrawals. Montenegro leads at 127,000 cubic feet per person, followed by Turkmenistan at 85,000. The U.S. ranks sixth at 46,000.

Rank	Country	Cubic Feet of Withdrawals Per Person
1	Montenegro	127K
2	Turkmenistan	85K
3	Guyana	62K
4	Chile	59K
5	Uruguay	47K
6	U.S.	46K
7	Uzbekistan	45K
8	Azerbaijan	45K
9	Kazakhstan	44K
10	North Macedonia	42K
11	Kyrgyzstan	39K
12	Armenia	38K
13	Iran	37K
14	Suriname	35K
15	Laos	34K
16	Tajikistan	34K
17	Greece	34K
18	Iraq	34K
19	New Zealand	34K
20	Canada	33K
21	Estonia	32K
22	Eswatini	31K
23	Timor-Leste	30K
24	Argentina	29K
25	Vietnam	29K
26	Dominican Republic	29K
27	Saudi Arabia	29K
28	Libya	29K
29	Venezuela	28K
30	Thailand	28K

For Americans, that high ranking has less to do with what comes out of the kitchen faucet than with the systems behind everyday life.

U.S. farms withdrew an average 105 billion gallons of water per day for crop irrigation from 2010 to 2020, while power plants withdrew another 83 billion gallons of freshwater daily.

Importantly, withdrawals are not the same as consumption. Power plants return most of the water they withdraw, while irrigation consumes a much larger share.

Why Water Abundance Isn’t the Whole Story

Geography shapes much of the renewable water a country has available, while agriculture, industry, energy production, and population help determine how much it withdraws.

That distinction becomes more important as growing cities, farms, data centers, factories, and power systems compete for water in the same places. Even water-rich countries can face local pressure when demand is concentrated, while relatively small increases in demand can matter more in drier countries.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

To learn more about this topic, check out this graphic on the world’s largest agricultural economies.

• Source: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-countries-with-the-highest-water-supply-and-use-per-person/