Where Europe takes its water from: the groundwater share, country by country
European countries report how much freshwater they abstract and how much of it comes from aquifers rather than rivers. The share ranges from under five per cent to over ninety, and it is a more useful number than the total: surface abstraction is limited by what is flowing at the time, while groundwater is drawn from a store that can be maintained through a drought and depleted across decades without any single year looking unusual. This piece reports the split for every country that publishes both, in the most recent year each reported them together.
Most groundwater-dependent
The share of reported freshwater abstraction taken from aquifers rather than from rivers, lakes and reservoirs, in the most recent year each country reported both.
| Country | Year | Groundwater share | Groundwater | Surface |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Malta | 2024 | 92.9% | 38 Mm³ | 3 Mm³ |
| North Macedonia | 2024 | 77.6% | 262 Mm³ | 76 Mm³ |
| Denmark | 2024 | 71.0% | 578 Mm³ | 236 Mm³ |
| Cyprus | 2024 | 65.4% | 135 Mm³ | 71 Mm³ |
| Croatia | 2024 | 60.2% | 453 Mm³ | 299 Mm³ |
| Slovakia | 2024 | 57.8% | 357 Mm³ | 260 Mm³ |
| Portugal | 1998 | 56.7% | 6,290 Mm³ | 4,800 Mm³ |
| Greece | 2024 | 56.1% | 4,921 Mm³ | 3,847 Mm³ |
Least groundwater-dependent
At the other end, countries meeting almost all of their reported abstraction from surface water.
| Country | Year | Groundwater share | Groundwater | Surface |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finland | 2006 | 4.0% | 264 Mm³ | 6,298 Mm³ |
| Montenegro | 2024 | 5.4% | 151 Mm³ | 2,625 Mm³ |
| Kosovo | 2018 | 6.3% | 16 Mm³ | 243 Mm³ |
| Serbia | 2024 | 9.9% | 514 Mm³ | 4,652 Mm³ |
| Romania | 2024 | 10.3% | 853 Mm³ | 7,411 Mm³ |
| Bulgaria | 2024 | 11.0% | 558 Mm³ | 4,529 Mm³ |
| Netherlands | 2023 | 13.7% | 1,012 Mm³ | 6,356 Mm³ |
| Albania | 2024 | 13.7% | 111 Mm³ | 696 Mm³ |
Why the split matters more than the total
Surface abstraction is constrained by what is flowing past the intake at the time. In a dry summer the river falls, the abstraction becomes visible, and it competes directly with everything else the river does. Groundwater is drawn from a store rather than a flow: a country meeting its demand from aquifers can hold supply steady through a drought, and can also deplete the store over decades without any single year looking unusual.
Two countries reporting the same total abstraction are therefore not in the same position, and the more useful comparison is which one is drawing on a flow and which on a store.
Data behind this
Every figure above is computed from these datasets at build time rather than written into the text. If the underlying record changes, this page changes with it.
Citation
Hydrionis (2026), Where Europe takes its water from: the groundwater share, country by country, version 1.0. Retrieved from https://hydrionis.com/research/european-abstraction-surface-and-groundwater/