Headline indicators

Total renewable freshwater resources
2,818.00 km³/yr
2022
Where this number comes from
DerivedMedium confidence2022

Source: World BankWorld Development Indicators, World Bank WDI indicator ER.H2O.INTR.K3. Licence: Open — attribution required (attribution required).

Method: Renewable internal freshwater resources: the long-term average annual flow of rivers and recharge of groundwater generated from precipitation within the country. Internal resources exclude inflow from upstream countries, so this is the measure of self-sufficiency rather than of total availability. Originating body: FAO AQUASTAT. The World Bank publishes its datasets under CC BY 4.0, but relayed third-party material may carry the originator's own terms — verify with them before commercial reuse.

Retrieved 24 August 2026.

Renewable freshwater per person
8,437 m³/person/yr
2022
Where this number comes from
CalculatedMedium confidence2022

Source: World BankWorld Development Indicators, World Bank WDI indicator ER.H2O.INTR.PC. Licence: Open — attribution required (attribution required).

Method: Renewable internal freshwater resources divided by population. Because the population denominator updates annually while the resource figure is a long-term hydrological average, movement in this series is largely population change rather than hydrological change. Originating body: FAO AQUASTAT and World Bank population estimates. The World Bank publishes its datasets under CC BY 4.0, but relayed third-party material may carry the originator's own terms — verify with them before commercial reuse.

Retrieved 24 August 2026.

Total freshwater withdrawal
444.29 km³/yr
2022
Where this number comes from
ReportedMedium confidence2022

Source: World BankWorld Development Indicators, World Bank WDI indicator ER.H2O.FWTL.K3. Licence: Open — attribution required (attribution required).

Method: Total annual freshwater withdrawn for agricultural, industrial and domestic use. Withdrawal is not consumption: much of what is withdrawn is returned to the source catchment. Originating body: FAO AQUASTAT. The World Bank publishes its datasets under CC BY 4.0, but relayed third-party material may carry the originator's own terms — verify with them before commercial reuse.

Retrieved 24 August 2026.

Agricultural share of withdrawal
39.7%
2022
Where this number comes from
ReportedMedium confidence2022

Source: World BankWorld Development Indicators, World Bank WDI indicator ER.H2O.FWAG.ZS. Licence: Open — attribution required (attribution required).

Method: Agricultural withdrawal as a percentage of total freshwater withdrawal. Originating body: FAO AQUASTAT. The World Bank publishes its datasets under CC BY 4.0, but relayed third-party material may carry the originator's own terms — verify with them before commercial reuse.

Retrieved 24 August 2026.

Industrial share of withdrawal
47.2%
2022
Where this number comes from
ReportedMedium confidence2022

Source: World BankWorld Development Indicators, World Bank WDI indicator ER.H2O.FWIN.ZS. Licence: Open — attribution required (attribution required).

Method: Industrial withdrawal as a percentage of total freshwater withdrawal. Countries differ in whether thermoelectric cooling is counted here, and where it is the share reflects cooling arrangements rather than manufacturing intensity. Originating body: FAO AQUASTAT. The World Bank publishes its datasets under CC BY 4.0, but relayed third-party material may carry the originator's own terms — verify with them before commercial reuse.

Retrieved 24 August 2026.

Municipal share of withdrawal
13.1%
2022
Where this number comes from
ReportedMedium confidence2022

Source: World BankWorld Development Indicators, World Bank WDI indicator ER.H2O.FWDM.ZS. Licence: Open — attribution required (attribution required).

Method: Domestic and municipal withdrawal as a percentage of total freshwater withdrawal. Originating body: FAO AQUASTAT. The World Bank publishes its datasets under CC BY 4.0, but relayed third-party material may carry the originator's own terms — verify with them before commercial reuse.

Retrieved 24 August 2026.

Safely managed drinking water
97.6%
2024
Where this number comes from
ModelledMedium confidence2024

This is not a direct measurement. Output of a numerical or statistical model rather than a measurement.

Source: World BankWorld Development Indicators, World Bank WDI indicator SH.H2O.SMDW.ZS. Licence: Open — attribution required (attribution required).

Method: Population using an improved drinking water source that is accessible on premises, available when needed, and free from priority contamination — all three simultaneously. Modelled from household surveys and censuses, not counted. Originating body: WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme. The World Bank publishes its datasets under CC BY 4.0, but relayed third-party material may carry the originator's own terms — verify with them before commercial reuse.

Retrieved 24 August 2026.

Safely managed sanitation
97.0%
2024
Where this number comes from
ModelledMedium confidence2024

This is not a direct measurement. Output of a numerical or statistical model rather than a measurement.

Source: World BankWorld Development Indicators, World Bank WDI indicator SH.STA.SMSS.ZS. Licence: Open — attribution required (attribution required).

Method: Population using improved sanitation facilities not shared with other households, where excreta are safely disposed of in situ or treated off site. Originating body: WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme. The World Bank publishes its datasets under CC BY 4.0, but relayed third-party material may carry the originator's own terms — verify with them before commercial reuse.

Retrieved 24 August 2026.

How water is used

Freshwater withdrawal by sector — United States
Share of total freshwater withdrawal. Withdrawal is not consumption: much of what industry and energy withdraw is returned.
Freshwater withdrawal by sector — United StatesAgriculture: 39.7%. Industry: 47.2%. Municipal: 13.1%02040%AgricultureAgriculture: 39.7%39.7IndustryIndustry: 47.2%47.2MunicipalMunicipal: 13.1%13.1

Sector shares are reported for varying reference years by country, and countries differ in whether thermoelectric cooling is counted as industrial withdrawal.

View the data behind this chart
SubjectValue (%)Notes
Agriculture39.7
Industry47.2
Municipal13.1

Measured here

Hydrionis holds records from 2,680 monitoring locations in United States, read directly from the national network rather than reported at country level.

2,680
Monitoring locations
231,620
Values held from them
1874–2026
Record spans
What the United States monitoring network measures
MeasurementLocationsValues
Mean river flow1,750148,859
Reservoir stored volume9254,260
Facility water withdrawal8347,414
Facility water consumption8136,943
Facility reclaimed water use69611

See the United States monitoring network — where the stations are, and what each one measures.

Coverage for this place

Entities in United States

DC Water

Serves Washington DC. Notable for a lead-in-water crisis in the early 2000s traced to a change in disinfectant from chlorine to …

Colorado River

The river of the American south west, and the clearest example anywhere of a river allocated beyond its actual flow. In most yea…

Lake Mead

The largest reservoir in the United States by capacity, impounded by the Hoover Dam. Its decline to record low levels in 2022 be…

Ogallala Aquifer

The aquifer underlying the American High Plains, and the clearest large-scale example of groundwater mining: withdrawal has subs…

Milwaukee Cryptosporidium outbreak

The largest documented waterborne disease outbreak in United States history, caused by Cryptosporidium passing through a functio…

Flint water crisis

A change of water source without corrosion control caused lead to leach from service lines across Flint, Michigan, exposing a ci…

Jackson, Mississippi water system failure

Flooding overwhelmed an already failing treatment plant, leaving a city of roughly 150,000 people without reliable running water…

Hurricane Katrina water and sanitation collapse

Levee failure flooded most of New Orleans, destroying water and sanitation services and creating widespread contamination of sta…

Flint — criminal proceedings against state officials

Michigan Attorney General action against State and city officials: Charges relating to the decisions and conduct surrounding the…

DuPont and Chemours — PFAS settlements

US courts and state attorneys general action against DuPont, Chemours, Corteva: PFAS contamination of public water systems from …

3M — PFAS public water system settlement

US federal court action against 3M: PFAS contamination of public drinking water systems.

Dasani

Purified water from Municipal water supply, treated by reverse osmosis and remineralised. Total dissolved solids around 40 mg/l.

Google Council Bluffs

One of Google’s largest campuses. Google publishes site-level water withdrawal and consumption annually, making its US sites amo…

Google The Dalles

Subject of a multi-year public records dispute over disclosure of its municipal water use, resolved when the figures were releas…

Microsoft Des Moines

Reported in connection with large-scale AI model training, and cited in academic work estimating the water footprint of training…

AWS Northern Virginia region

The largest concentration of data centre capacity in the world. AWS reports a company-level water usage effectiveness and uses r…

Carlsbad desalination plant

The largest seawater desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere, supplying San Diego County — and a standing case study in the…

Hoover Dam

The dam that created Lake Mead and made large-scale settlement and irrigation of the American south west possible.

US National Primary Drinking Water Regulations

Federally enforceable US drinking water standards, expressed as maximum contaminant levels or as treatment technique requirement…

Within this place