List of countries by access to improved sanitation facilities

Last updated November 26, 2024

This is a list of countries by access to improved sanitation facilities, which includes access to toilets and safe drinking water.

Methods

Figures used in this chart are based on data compiled and uploaded by the World Bank in May 2013 through their World Development Indicators initiative.^[1] The information was provided by the respective governments of the listed countries. As the compiled figures are not collected with the same methodology and with different levels of rigor, there are limitations in their reliability in forming comparisons.

Sanitation as defined by the World Health Organization:^[2]

"Sanitation generally refers to the provision of facilities and services for the safe disposal of human urine and feces. Inadequate sanitation is a major cause of disease world-wide and improving sanitation is known to have a significant beneficial impact on health both in households and across communities. The word 'sanitation' also refers to the maintenance of hygienic conditions, through services such as garbage collection and wastewater disposal.

The United Nations states that improved sanitation facilities "ensure hygienic separation of human excreta from human contact."^[3]

The Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation of WHO and UNICEF has defined improved sanitation as follows: flush toilet,^[4] connection to a piped sewer system, connection to a septic system, flush/pour-flush to a pit latrine, ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrine, pit latrine with slab, composting toilet and/or some special cases.^[5]

The World Bank states:^[6]

"Access to improved sanitation facilities refers to the percentage of the population with at least adequate access to excreta disposal facilities that can effectively prevent human, animal, and insect contact with excreta. Improved facilities range from simple but protected pit latrines to flush toilets with a sewerage connection. To be effective, facilities must be correctly constructed and properly maintained."

Countries

The following table is based on The World Bank basic sanitation DataBank.^[7]

Country	2000	2005	2010	2015	2020
Afghanistan	22	27	35	43	50
Albania	89	92	95	98	99
Algeria	84	86	87	87	86
American Samoa	65	65	63	57	54
Andorra	100	100	100	100	100
Angola	28	35	41	47	52
Antigua and Barbuda	82	84	86	88
Argentina	87	90	93	95
Armenia	87	89	91	93	94
Aruba	98	98	98	98
Australia	100	100	100	100	100
Austria	100	100	100	100	100
Azerbaijan	62	72	85	96
Bahamas	88	90	93	95
Bahrain	100	100	100	100	100
Bangladesh	24	31	39	47	54
Barbados	89	91	94	96	98
Belarus	92	93	95	98	98
Belgium	99	99	99	99	99
Belize	82	84	86	87	88
Benin	9	11	13	15	17
Bermuda	100	100	100	100	100
Bhutan	47	55	63	70	77
Bolivia	35	40	48	57	66
Bosnia and Herzegovina	95	95	95	95
Botswana	52	59	67	75	80
Brazil	73	78	82	86	90
British Virgin Islands	97	97	97	97
Bulgaria	86	86	86	86	86
Burkina Faso	11	14	17	20	22
Burundi	45	46	46	46	46
Cape Verde	40	50	61	70	79
Cambodia	10	23	38	53	69
Cameroon	38	39	41	43	45
Canada	100	100	100	99	99
Cayman Islands		84	84	84
Central African Republic	21	20	18	16	14
Chad	10	10	10	11	12
Chile	92	95	97	99	100
China	57	66	76	84	92
Colombia	75	80	84	89	94
Comoros	29	33	34	36
Congo	12	14	16	19	20
Costa Rica	94	95	96	97	98
Côte d'Ivoire	21	23	27	31	35
Croatia	96	96	96	96	97
Cuba	88	88	89	90	91
Curaçao	98	98	99	99
Cyprus	100	100	100	99	99
Czech Republic	99	99	99	99	99
Denmark	100	100	100	100	100
Djibouti	47	48	55	61	67
Dominica	64	70	77	80
Dominican Republic	77	80	82	85	87
DR Congo	24	22	20	17	15
Ecuador	69	74	80	86	92
Egypt	91	93	94	96	97
El Salvador	83	84	83	83	82
Equatorial Guinea	55	60	64	66
Eritrea	8	10	11	12
Estonia	100	100	99	99	99
Eswatini	48	52	56	61	64
Ethiopia	3	4	6	7	9
Fiji	80	83	89	96	99
Finland	99	99	99	99	99
France	99	99	99	99	99
French Polynesia	98	98	98	97	97
Gabon	34	39	44	49	50
Gambia	51	46	46	46	47
Georgia	91	89	88	87	86
Germany	99	99	99	99	99
Ghana	7	11	15	19	24
Gibraltar	100	100	100	100	100
Greece	98	98	99	99	99
Greenland	100	100	100	100	100
Grenada	90	91	92	91
Guam	89	89	90	90
Guatemala	62	64	65	67	68
Guinea	9	13	18	24	30
Guinea-Bissau	5	8	11	14	18
Guyana	79	81	83	85	86
Haiti	17	22	27	33	37
Honduras	63	69	74	79	84
Hong Kong	97	97	97	97	97
Hungary	98	98	98	98	98
Iceland	99	99	99	99	99
India	15	28	42	57	71
Indonesia	38	49	61	74	86
Iran	78	82	85	88	90
Iraq	70	74	83	93	100
Ireland	100	100	100	100	100
Israel	100	100	100	100	100
Italy	100	100	100	100	100
Jamaica	83	84	85	86	87
Japan	100	100	100	100	100
Jordan	99	98	98	97	97
Kazakhstan	97	97	97	98	98
Kenya	31	31	32	32	33
Kiribati	32	37	41	43	46
Kuwait	100	100	100	100	100
Kyrgyzstan	92	93	95	97	98
Laos	28	43	56	70	79
Latvia	88	89	90	92	92
Lebanon	77	81	87	94	99
Lesotho	8	20	30	41	50
Liberia	13	15	16	17	18
Libya	90	91	91	92	92
Liechtenstein	100	100	100	100	100
Lithuania	84	87	90	92	94
Luxembourg	98	98	98	98	98
Macau	100	100	100	100	100
Madagascar	4	6	8	10	12
Malawi	21	22	24	25	27
Malaysia	97	98	99	100
Maldives	75	82	88	94	99
Mali	16	22	29	37	45
Malta	100	100	100	100	100
Marshall Islands		80	82	83	84
Mauritania	17	23	32	43	50
Mauritius	90	92	94	96
Mexico	77	81	85	89	92
Micronesia	25	46	67	88
Moldova	74	75	75	76	79
Monaco	100	100	100	100	100
Mongolia	45	50	56	62	68
Montenegro			93	96	98
Morocco	68	73	78	83	87
Mozambique	9	15	22	29	37
Myanmar	63	66	69	71	74
Namibia	28	30	32	34	35
Nauru	66	66	66	66
Nepal	14	27	42	59	77
Netherlands	98	98	98	98	98
New Caledonia	100	100	100	100	100
New Zealand	100	100	100	100	100
Nicaragua	57	62	67	72	73
Niger	5	8	10	13	15
Nigeria	29	31	34	38	43
North Korea		75	78	82	85
North Macedonia	89	89	92	95	98
Northern Mariana Islands	75	76	77	78	79
Norway	98	98	98	98	98
Oman	89	92	96	99	99
Pakistan	30	40	50	59	68
Palau	91	94	97	99	100
Panama	62	67	73	79	85
Papua New Guinea	18	18	19	19	19
Paraguay	70	77	82	88	93
Peru	63	68	71	75	79
Philippines	61	63	69	75	82
Poland	89	92	95	99	100
Portugal	97	98	99	99	100
Puerto Rico	98	99	99	100	100
Qatar	100	100	100	100	100
Romania		75	79	83	87
Russia	84	86	87	88	89
Rwanda	45	52	58	64	69
Samoa	94	95	95	96	97
San Marino	100	100	100	100	100
São Tomé and Príncipe	20	27	34	41	48
Saudi Arabia	98	99	99	100	100
Senegal	37	42	47	52	57
Serbia	95	96	97	97	98
Seychelles	94	96	98	100	100
Sierra Leone	10	12	13	15	17
Singapore	100	100	100	100	100
Sint Maarten	98	99	99	99
Slovakia	100	99	98	98	98
Slovenia	98	98	98	98	98
Small states	61	63	68	71	72
Solomon Islands	20	22	27	32	35
Somalia	20	24	29	34	39
South Africa	59	64	69	74	78
South Korea	100	100	100	100	100
South Sudan				11	16
Spain	100	100	100	100	100
Sri Lanka	77	81	86	91	94
St. Kitts and Nevis	86	90	93	95
St. Lucia	85	85	84	83	83
Saint Martin	99	99	99	100	100
St. Vincent and the Grenadines	71	77	83	87
Sudan	21	22	28	35	37
Suriname	78	80	83	86	90
Sweden	99	99	99	99	99
Switzerland	100	100	100	100	100
Syria	90	91	91	90	90
Tajikistan	90	92	93	95	97
Tanzania	5	12	19	26	32
Thailand	92	94	95	97	99
Timor-Leste		40	46	51	57
Togo	10	11	13	16	19
Tonga	89	90	93	93	93
Trinidad and Tobago	90	91	93	94	94
Tunisia	77	82	87	92	97
Turkey	87	90	93	96	99
Turkmenistan	93	94	95	97	99
Turks and Caicos Islands	81	83	86	88
Tuvalu		80	83	84
Uganda	17	18	18	19	20
Ukraine	94	95	96	97	98
United Arab Emirates		97	98	99	99
United Kingdom	99	99	99	99	99
United States	95	95	95	95	95
Uruguay	93	94	95	97	98
Uzbekistan	93	96	99	100	100
Vanuatu	56	56	55	53	53
Venezuela		93	94	95	96
Vietnam	52	62	71	81	89
U.S. Virgin Islands	99	99	99	99	99
West Bank and Gaza	90	91	94	96	99
Yemen	45	48	50	52	54
Zambia	22	25	27	30	32
Zimbabwe	45	44	41	38	35

Related Research Articles

Sanitation refers to public health conditions related to clean drinking water and treatment and disposal of human excreta and sewage. Preventing human contact with feces is part of sanitation, as is hand washing with soap. Sanitation systems aim to protect human health by providing a clean environment that will stop the transmission of disease, especially through the fecal–oral route. For example, diarrhea, a main cause of malnutrition and stunted growth in children, can be reduced through adequate sanitation. There are many other diseases which are easily transmitted in communities that have low levels of sanitation, such as ascariasis, cholera, hepatitis, polio, schistosomiasis, and trachoma, to name just a few.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Latrine</span> Toilet or an even simpler facility that is used as a toilet within a sanitation system

A latrine is a toilet or an even simpler facility that is used as a toilet within a sanitation system. For example, it can be a communal trench in the earth in a camp to be used as emergency sanitation, a hole in the ground, or more advanced designs, including pour-flush systems.

Human waste refers to the waste products of the human digestive system, menses, and human metabolism including urine and feces. As part of a sanitation system that is in place, human waste is collected, transported, treated and disposed of or reused by one method or another, depending on the type of toilet being used, ability by the users to pay for services and other factors. Fecal sludge management is used to deal with fecal matter collected in on-site sanitation systems such as pit latrines and septic tanks.

A pit latrine, also known as pit toilet, is a type of toilet that collects human waste in a hole in the ground. Urine and feces enter the pit through a drop hole in the floor, which might be connected to a toilet seat or squatting pan for user comfort. Pit latrines can be built to function without water or they can have a water seal. When properly built and maintained, pit latrines can decrease the spread of disease by reducing the amount of human feces in the environment from open defecation. This decreases the transfer of pathogens between feces and food by flies. These pathogens are major causes of infectious diarrhea and intestinal worm infections. Infectious diarrhea resulted in about 700,000 deaths in children under five years old in 2011 and 250 million lost school days. Pit latrines are a low-cost method of separating feces from people.

A bucket toilet is a basic form of a dry toilet whereby a bucket (pail) is used to collect excreta. Usually, feces and urine are collected together in the same bucket, leading to odor issues. The bucket may be situated inside a dwelling, or in a nearby small structure.

Community-led total sanitation (CLTS): is an approach used mainly in developing countries to improve sanitation and hygiene practices in a community. The approach tries to achieve behaviour change in mainly rural people by a process of "triggering", leading to spontaneous and long-term abandonment of open defecation practices. It focuses on spontaneous and long-lasting behaviour change of an entire community. The term "triggering" is central to the CLTS process: it refers to ways of igniting community interest in ending open defecation, usually by building simple toilets, such as pit latrines. CLTS involves actions leading to increased self-respect and pride in one's community. It also involves shame and disgust about one's own open defecation behaviours. CLTS takes an approach to rural sanitation that works without hardware subsidies and that facilitates communities to recognize the problem of open defecation and take collective action to clean up and become "open defecation free".

Water supply and sanitation in Indonesia is characterized by poor levels of access and service quality. More than 16 million people lack access to an at least basic water source and almost 33 million of the country's 275 million population has no access to at least basic sanitation. Only about 2% of people have access to sewerage in urban areas; this is one of the lowest in the world among middle-income countries. Water pollution is widespread on Bali and Java. Women in Jakarta report spending US$11 per month on boiling water, implying a significant burden for the poor.

Sustainable sanitation is a sanitation system designed to meet certain criteria and to work well over the long-term. Sustainable sanitation systems consider the entire "sanitation value chain", from the experience of the user, excreta and wastewater collection methods, transportation or conveyance of waste, treatment, and reuse or disposal. The Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA) includes five features in its definition of "sustainable sanitation": Systems need to be economically and socially acceptable, technically and institutionally appropriate and protect the environment and natural resources.

Improved sanitation is a term used to categorize types of sanitation for monitoring purposes. It refers to the management of human feces at the household level. The term was coined by the Joint Monitoring Program (JMP) for Water Supply and Sanitation of UNICEF and WHO in 2002 to help monitor the progress towards Goal Number 7 of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The opposite of "improved sanitation" has been termed "unimproved sanitation" in the JMP definitions. The same terms are used to monitor progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 6 from 2015 onwards. Here, they are a component of the definition for "safely managed sanitation service".

Drinking water supply and sanitation in Pakistan is characterized by some achievements and many challenges. In 2020, 68% Pakistanis, 72% Indians, 54% Bangladeshi had access to the basic sanitation facilities. Despite high population growth the country has increased the share of the population with access to an improved water source from 85% in 1990 to 92% in 2010, although this does not necessarily mean that the water from these sources is safe to drink. The share with access to improved sanitation increased from 27% to 38% during the same period, according to the Joint Monitoring Program for Water Supply and Sanitation. There has also been considerable innovation at the grass-root level, in particular concerning sanitation. The Orangi Pilot Project in Karachi and community-led total sanitation in rural areas are two examples of such innovation.

A toilet is a piece of sanitary hardware that collects human waste such as urine and feces, and sometimes toilet paper, usually for disposal. Flush toilets use water, while dry or non-flush toilets do not. They can be designed for a sitting position popular in Europe and North America with a toilet seat, with additional considerations for those with disabilities, or for a squatting posture more popular in Asia, known as a squat toilet. In urban areas, flush toilets are usually connected to a sewer system; in isolated areas, to a septic tank. The waste is known as blackwater and the combined effluent, including other sources, is sewage. Dry toilets are connected to a pit, removable container, composting chamber, or other storage and treatment device, including urine diversion with a urine-diverting toilet.

A sanitation worker is a person responsible for cleaning, maintaining, operating, or emptying the equipment or technology at any step of the sanitation chain. This is the definition used in the narrower sense within the WASH sector. More broadly speaking, sanitation workers may also be involved in cleaning streets, parks, public spaces, sewers, stormwater drains, and public toilets. Another definition is: "The moment an individual’s waste is outsourced to another, it becomes sanitation work." Some organizations use the term specifically for municipal solid waste collectors, whereas others exclude the workers involved in management of solid waste sector from its definition.

A dry toilet is a toilet which, unlike a flush toilet, does not use flush water. Dry toilets do not use water to move excreta along or block odors. They do not produce sewage, and are not connected to a sewer system or septic tank. Instead, excreta falls through a drop hole.

WASH is a sector in development cooperation or within local governments that provides water, sanitation, and hygiene services to people. The main purposes of providing access to WASH services include achieving public health gains, implementing the human right to water and sanitation, reducing the burden of collecting drinking water for women, and improving education and health outcomes at schools and health facilities. Access to WASH services is also an important component of water security. Universal, affordable, and sustainable access to WASH is a key issue within international development and is the focus of the first two targets of Sustainable Development Goal 6. Targets 6.1 and 6.2 aim for equitable and accessible water and sanitation for all. In 2017, it was estimated that 2.3 billion people live without basic sanitation facilities, and 844 million people live without access to safe and clean drinking water. The acronym WASH is used widely by non-governmental organizations and aid agencies in developing countries.

Open defecation is the human practice of defecating outside rather than into a toilet. People may choose fields, bushes, forests, ditches, streets, canals, or other open spaces for defecation. They do so either because they do not have a toilet readily accessible or due to archaic traditional cultural practices. The practice is common where sanitation infrastructure and services are not available. Even if toilets are available, behavior change efforts may still be needed to promote the use of toilets. 'Open defecation free' (ODF) is a term used to describe communities that have shifted to using toilets instead of open defecation. This can happen, for example, after community-led total sanitation programs have been implemented.

A urine-diverting dry toilet (UDDT) is a type of dry toilet with urine diversion that can be used to provide safe, affordable sanitation in a variety of contexts worldwide. The separate collection of feces and urine without any flush water has many advantages, such as odor-free operation and pathogen reduction by drying. While dried feces and urine harvested from UDDTs can be and routinely are used in agriculture, many UDDT installations do not apply any sort of recovery scheme. The UDDT is an example of a technology that can be used to achieve a sustainable sanitation system. This dry excreta management system is an alternative to pit latrines and flush toilets, especially where water is scarce, a connection to a sewer system and centralized wastewater treatment plant is not feasible or desired, fertilizer and soil conditioner are needed for agriculture, or groundwater pollution should be minimized.

Fecal sludge management (FSM) is the storage, collection, transport, treatment and safe end use or disposal of fecal sludge. Together, the collection, transport, treatment and end use of fecal sludge constitute the "value chain" or "service chain" of fecal sludge management. Fecal sludge is defined very broadly as what accumulates in onsite sanitation systems and specifically is not transported through a sewer. It is composed of human excreta, but also anything else that may go into an onsite containment technology, such as flushwater, cleansing materials, menstrual hygiene products, grey water, and solid waste. Fecal sludge that is removed from septic tanks is called septage.

Container-based sanitation refers to a sanitation system where toilets collect human excreta in sealable, removable containers that are transported to treatment facilities. This type of sanitation involves a commercial service which provides certain types of portable toilets, and delivers empty containers when picking up full ones. The service transports and safely disposes of or reuses collected excreta. The cost of collection of excreta is usually borne by the users. With suitable development, support and functioning partnerships, CBS can be used to provide low-income urban populations with safe collection, transport and treatment of excrement at a lower cost than installing and maintaining sewers. In most cases, CBS is based on the use of urine-diverting dry toilets.

Emergency sanitation is the management and technical processes required to provide sanitation in emergency situations. Emergency sanitation is required during humanitarian relief operations for refugees, people affected by natural disasters and internally displaced persons. There are three phases of emergency response: Immediate, short term and long term. In the immediate phase, the focus is on managing open defecation, and toilet technologies might include very basic latrines, pit latrines, bucket toilets, container-based toilets, chemical toilets. The short term phase might also involve technologies such as urine-diverting dry toilets, septic tanks, decentralized wastewater systems. Providing handwashing facilities and management of fecal sludge are also part of emergency sanitation.

Laos is a nation with plentiful surface water and broad rivers, but outside of cities, water sanitation and accessibility infrastructure is sparse. Few improvements have been made since the end of the Laotian Civil War in 1975, especially compared to peer nations such as Thailand. By 2015, 76% of Laotians nationwide were estimated to have access to “improved” water, while 71% were estimated to have access to “improved” sanitation.

References

↑ "People using safely managed sanitation services (% of population) | Data". data.worldbank.org. Retrieved 2021-11-26.
↑ who.int
↑ "UNICEF WCARO - Overview | Aperçu - Access to water and sanitation: A few definitions". Archived from the original on 2013-12-27. Retrieved 2014-05-22.
↑ WHO and UNICEF types of improved drinking-water source on the JMP website, WHO, Geneva and UNICEF, New York, accessed on June 10, 2012
↑ WHO and UNICEF "WHO / UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme: Wat/San categories". Archived from the original on 2015-10-03. Retrieved 2015-10-13., ibid.
↑ "People using safely managed sanitation services (% of population) | Data".
↑ "People using at least basic sanitation services (% of population) | Data". data.worldbank.org. Retrieved 2022-05-08.

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[1] "People using safely managed sanitation services (% of population) | Data". data.worldbank.org. Retrieved 2021-11-26.

[2] who.int

[3] "UNICEF WCARO - Overview | Aperçu - Access to water and sanitation: A few definitions". Archived from the original on 2013-12-27. Retrieved 2014-05-22.

[4] WHO and UNICEF types of improved drinking-water source on the JMP website, WHO, Geneva and UNICEF, New York, accessed on June 10, 2012

[5] WHO and UNICEF "WHO / UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme: Wat/San categories". Archived from the original on 2015-10-03. Retrieved 2015-10-13., ibid.

[6] "People using safely managed sanitation services (% of population) | Data".

[7] "People using at least basic sanitation services (% of population) | Data". data.worldbank.org. Retrieved 2022-05-08.

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List of countries by access to improved sanitation facilities

Contents

Methods

Countries

See also

Related Research Articles

References