{"id":"global-water-resources","slug":"global-water-resources","name":"Global Water Resources and Withdrawal Dataset","description":"Annual renewable freshwater resources, total withdrawal, withdrawal by sector, water stress and access to drinking water and sanitation for around 200 countries and territories.","methodology":"Collected from the World Bank World Development Indicators under CC BY 4.0. The World Bank relays material originated by other bodies — chiefly the FAO AQUASTAT programme and the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme — and the originator is recorded per indicator. Sector shares are validated as a set: where the three do not sum to 100 ± 2 for a country-year, all three are dropped, because Hydrionis does not know which of the three is wrong and therefore publishes none of them.","domains":["resources","withdrawal","stress","access","sanitation"],"metricIds":["renewable-water-resources","renewable-water-per-capita","water-withdrawal-total","water-stress","withdrawal-agriculture-share","withdrawal-industry-share","withdrawal-municipal-share","drinking-water-safely-managed","sanitation-safely-managed"],"subjectScope":"Countries and territories","cadence":"annual","version":"1.0.0","released":"2026-08-24","changelog":[{"version":"1.0.0","date":"2026-08-24","summary":"First release. Replaces the hand-transcribed country layer carried before automated collection.","additions":["Full annual series in place of single reference values."],"corrections":["106 country-years of sector shares were withdrawn where the three shares did not sum to 100%, including Bolivia 2020–21 at 612% and Namibia at 155% agriculture."],"breaking":["The previous transcribed country observations are retired. Their identifiers no longer resolve."]}],"limitations":["National aggregates conceal enormous internal variation. A country figure describes an accounting total, not the situation of anyone living in it.","Reporting years differ between countries, and many values are the most recent available rather than the year requested.","The World Bank publishes under CC BY 4.0, but relayed third-party material may carry the originator’s own terms. Verify with the originator before commercial reuse."],"observationCount":50363,"seriesCount":1263,"subjectCount":186,"from":1961,"to":2022,"sourceIds":["worldbank-wdi"],"units":["%","km³/yr","m³/person/yr"],"redistributable":true,"commerciallyReusable":true,"citation":"Hydrionis (2026), Global Water Resources and Withdrawal Dataset, version 1.0.0. Retrieved from https://hydrionis.com/data/datasets/global-water-resources/","downloads":[{"file":"/downloads/observations-resources-worldbank-wdi.csv","format":"CSV","label":"resources observations from World Bank (22,565 rows)"},{"file":"/downloads/observations-sector-use-worldbank-wdi.csv","format":"CSV","label":"sector-use observations from World Bank (18,241 rows)"},{"file":"/downloads/observations-withdrawal-worldbank-wdi.csv","format":"CSV","label":"withdrawal observations from World Bank (6,780 rows)"},{"file":"/downloads/observations-stress-worldbank-wdi.csv","format":"CSV","label":"stress observations from World Bank (6,672 rows)"}],"apiPath":"/api/v1/datasets/global-water-resources.json","lastFetched":"2026-10-01","fields":[{"id":"renewable-water-resources","name":"Total renewable freshwater resources","definition":"The long-term average annual flow of rivers and recharge of groundwater generated by precipitation within a country, plus inflows from upstream countries.","unit":"km³/yr","nativeGeography":["country"],"comparabilityNotes":"Total renewable resources include water flowing in from other countries, so a downstream country’s figure may depend on upstream decisions it does not control. Internal renewable resources exclude those inflows and are the better measure of self-sufficiency."},{"id":"renewable-water-per-capita","name":"Renewable freshwater per person","definition":"Total renewable freshwater resources divided by population.","unit":"m³/person/yr","nativeGeography":["country"],"comparabilityNotes":"A per-capita average conceals seasonal and regional distribution entirely. A country can be water-rich on this measure and still have cities that run short."},{"id":"water-withdrawal-total","name":"Total freshwater withdrawal","definition":"The total volume of freshwater taken from rivers, lakes and aquifers for all uses in a year, before any of it is returned.","unit":"km³/yr","nativeGeography":["country"],"comparabilityNotes":"Reporting years differ between countries, often by a decade. Withdrawal figures also vary in whether they include desalinated water and reused wastewater."},{"id":"water-stress","name":"Water stress","definition":"Freshwater withdrawal as a percentage of available renewable freshwater resources, after accounting for environmental flow requirements.","unit":"%","nativeGeography":["country","river-basin"],"comparabilityNotes":"A national figure averages over basins that can be individually far more stressed. Values above 100% mean withdrawal exceeds renewable supply, which is only possible by depleting groundwater, desalinating, or importing water."},{"id":"withdrawal-agriculture-share","name":"Agricultural share of withdrawal","definition":"Percentage of total freshwater withdrawal used by agriculture.","unit":"%","nativeGeography":["country"],"comparabilityNotes":"A high agricultural share reflects the size and irrigation intensity of the farming sector rather than inefficiency. Countries at the top of any such ranking are typically food producers in arid regions."},{"id":"withdrawal-industry-share","name":"Industrial share of withdrawal","definition":"Percentage of total freshwater withdrawal used by industry, including energy cooling.","unit":"%","nativeGeography":["country"],"comparabilityNotes":"Countries differ in whether thermoelectric cooling is counted as industrial withdrawal. Where it is included, the industrial share can exceed 50% in countries with large freshwater-cooled power fleets, which reflects cooling arrangements rather than manufacturing intensity."},{"id":"withdrawal-municipal-share","name":"Municipal share of withdrawal","definition":"Percentage of total freshwater withdrawal supplied through public water systems.","unit":"%","nativeGeography":["country"],"comparabilityNotes":"The municipal share rises where agriculture and industry are small, so a high figure often indicates a service-based economy rather than high household consumption."},{"id":"drinking-water-safely-managed"},{"id":"sanitation-safely-managed"}]}