Water stress levels globally by country 2020

Over a quarter of the world's population faces extremely high levels of baseline water stress due to irrigated agriculture, industry, and municipal withdrawals on the available water supply. Many countries with the highest risk of water stress are in the Middle East, such as Kuwait and Qatar, which both had water stress scores of five out of a possible five in 2020. Singapore is also one of the most water stressed countries in the world due to a lack of natural water resources, and has long relied on supplies from neighboring Malaysia. However, in a bid to become water independent, Singapore has developed an advanced system that turns sewage into clean, drinkable water that can meet 40 percent of demand.

Baseline water stress score worldwide in 2020, by select country*

Characteristic	Score
Singapore	5
Kuwait	5
Qatar	5
Palestine	5
United Arab Emirates	5
Israel	5
Bahrain	5
Saudi Arabia	4.99
Lebanon	4.98
Oman	4.98
Kyrgyzstan	4.94
Iran	4.93
Jordan	4.89
Libya	4.82
Yemen	4.79
Macedonia	4.76
Azerbaijan	4.75
Morocco	4.74
Iraq	4.73
Kazakhstan	4.73
Armenia	4.68
Pakistan	4.58
Chile	4.56
Syria	4.55
Turkmenistan	4.44
Turkey	4.42
Greece	4.38
Uzbekistan	4.35
Algeria	4.34
Afghanistan	4.3
Spain	4.26
Tunisia	4.25
Mexico	4.19
Dominican Republic	4.15
Estonia	4.13
Mongolia	4.08
Belgium	3.99
Italy	3.94
India	3.89
Australia	3.84
Portugal	3.84
Tajikistan	3.75
Sri Lanka	3.66
United States	3.66
China	3.64
Albania	3.62
Haiti	3.62
Indonesia	3.61
Ukraine	3.6
South Africa	3.55
Timor-Leste	3.54
Peru	3.54
Namibia	3.54
Philippines	3.41
Eritrea	3.4
Botswana	3.4
Cuba	3.32
Moldova	3.28
Georgia	3.2
Argentina	3.15
Netherlands	3.14
Eswatini	3.1
South Korea	3.07
United Kingdom	2.9
Lithuania	2.84
France	2.82
Japan	2.79
Nepal	2.74
Poland	2.64
Venezuela	2.58
Ecuador	2.5
Finland	2.49
Bulgaria	2.47
Lesotho	2.47
Thailand	2.46
Czechia	2.45
Russia	2.43
Malaysia	2.42
Ireland	2.38
Germany	2.36
Somalia	2.33
Sweden	2.3
Sudan	2.25
Egypt	2.22
Romania	2.2
North Korea	2.2
Belarus	2.08
Canada	2.01
Switzerland	2.01
Montenegro	1.98
Guatemala	1.98
Angola	1.97
Honduras	1.94
Slovakia	1.86
Mauritania	1.84
El Salvador	1.82
Zimbabwe	1.82
Tanzania	1.8
Costa Rica	1.78
Senegal	1.78
Vietnam	1.77
Republic of Serbia	1.74
Latvia	1.74
Nigeria	1.72
Hungary	1.71
Brazil	1.7
Madagascar	1.7
Gambia	1.68
Bolivia	1.63
Slovenia	1.62
Mozambique	1.58
Denmark	1.56
Chad	1.54
Croatia	1.53
Ethiopia	1.53
Austria	1.52
Kenya	1.51
Guyana	1.49
New Zealand	1.49
Uruguay	1.47
Bosnia and Herzegovina	1.46
Ghana	1.46
Norway	1.44
Papua New Guinea	1.32
Nicaragua	1.32
Burkina Faso	1.31
Colombia	1.3
Cambodia	1.3
Ivory Coast	1.27
Togo	1.26
Bangladesh	1.26
Mali	1.26
Burundi	1.24
Djibouti	1.22
Niger	1.22
Zambia	1.16
Myanmar	1.14
DR Congo	1.12
Rwanda	1.08
Malawi	1.06
Laos	1.06
Guinea	1.02
Sierra Leone	1.02
Liberia	1.02
Benin	1.01
Cameroon	1.01
Uganda	1.01
Bhutan	1
Panama	1
Guinea Bissau	1
Republic of the Congo	1
South Sudan	1
Central African Republic	1
Paraguay	1
Equatorial Guinea	1
Gabon	1
Iceland	1

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Release date

September 2020

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Region

Worldwide

Survey time period

2020

Supplementary notes

* Baseline water stress measures the ratio of total water withdrawals to available renewable water supplies. Water withdrawals include domestic, industrial, irrigation and livestock consumptive and non-consumptive uses. Available renewable water supplies include surface and groundwater supplies and considers the impact of upstream consumptive water users and large dams on downstream water availability. Higher values indicate more competition among users.

Scores are on the scale from 0 to 5. The higher the score, the greater the exposure to water stress.

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