People using safely managed sanitation services, urban (% of urban population) - Country Ranking

Definition: The percentage of people using improved sanitation facilities that are not shared with other households and where excreta are safely disposed of in situ or transported and treated offsite. Improved sanitation facilities include flush/pour flush to piped sewer systems, septic tanks or pit latrines: ventilated improved pit latrines, compositing toilets or pit latrines with slabs.

Source: WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (washdata.org).

See also: Thematic map, Time series comparison

Find indicator:
Rank Country Value Year
1 Andorra 100.00 2020
1 Monaco 100.00 2020
1 Singapore 100.00 2020
4 Austria 99.95 2020
5 Switzerland 99.90 2020
6 United Kingdom 98.96 2020
7 Germany 98.73 2020
8 Lithuania 97.56 2020
9 Netherlands 97.50 2020
10 Luxembourg 97.48 2020
11 Greece 97.30 2020
12 United States 97.28 2020
13 Italy 96.39 2020
14 Sweden 95.53 2020
15 Israel 95.14 2020
16 Poland 93.77 2020
17 Portugal 92.67 2020
18 Kazakhstan 91.01 2020
19 Hungary 90.55 2020
20 Ireland 88.58 2020
21 Tunisia 88.58 2020
22 Slovak Republic 87.89 2020
23 Cyprus 86.32 2020
24 Hong Kong SAR, China 85.92 2020
25 Kyrgyz Republic 85.63 2020
26 China 85.62 2020
27 Jordan 84.45 2020
28 Canada 84.43 2020
29 Chile 81.35 2020
30 Belarus 80.33 2020
31 Moldova 78.94 2020
32 Turkey 77.98 2020
33 Bulgaria 76.13 2020
34 Croatia 75.59 2020
35 Egypt 72.85 2020
36 Armenia 71.36 2020
37 Ukraine 68.91 2020
38 Macao SAR, China 66.56 2020
39 Russia 63.74 2020
40 Peru 63.53 2020
41 Lao PDR 63.34 2020
42 Bhutan 63.09 2020
43 Yemen 60.61 2020
44 Bolivia 59.91 2020
45 Mexico 59.65 2020
46 Mongolia 58.66 2020
47 Philippines 54.86 2020
48 Paraguay 53.68 2020
49 Myanmar 53.41 2020
50 Brazil 50.67 2020
51 Montenegro 48.59 2020
52 Argentina 47.12 2020
53 Albania 44.08 2020
54 Somalia 43.94 2020
55 Niger 42.96 2020
56 Nepal 42.48 2020
57 Iraq 42.25 2020
58 Djibouti 41.62 2020
59 Morocco 41.49 2020
60 Lesotho 39.44 2020
61 India 37.32 2020
62 Samoa 36.59 2020
63 São Tomé and Principe 36.15 2020
64 Nigeria 35.06 2020
65 Tanzania 34.75 2020
66 Honduras 34.72 2020
67 Bangladesh 33.51 2020
68 Cuba 32.41 2020
69 Chad 32.26 2020
70 The Gambia 31.82 2020
71 Ecuador 31.22 2020
72 Bosnia and Herzegovina 29.85 2020
73 Thailand 29.58 2020
74 Costa Rica 28.69 2020
75 Papua New Guinea 28.34 2020
76 Georgia 27.56 2020
77 Malawi 27.01 2020
78 Kiribati 26.08 2020
79 Senegal 24.36 2020
80 Central African Republic 24.13 2020
81 Tonga 23.24 2020
82 Guinea-Bissau 22.21 2020
83 Suriname 20.69 2020
84 Sierra Leone 19.77 2020
85 Serbia 17.17 2020
86 El Salvador 17.06 2020
87 Colombia 16.60 2020
88 Zimbabwe 16.00 2020
89 Ethiopia 15.92 2020
90 Algeria 15.85 2020
91 Dem. Rep. Congo 14.50 2020
92 Madagascar 14.24 2020
93 Togo 12.28 2020
94 Ghana 12.09 2020
95 Mali 9.62 2020
96 Azerbaijan 8.88 2020
97 North Macedonia 8.15 2020
98 Tuvalu 5.28 2018

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Development Relevance: Sanitation is fundamental to human development. Many international organizations use hygienic sanitation facilities as a measure for progress in the fight against poverty, disease, and death. Access to proper sanitation is also considered to be a human right, not a privilege, for every man, woman, and child. 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 people's health. Basic and safely managed sanitation services can reduce diarrheal disease, and can significantly lessen the adverse health impacts of other disorders responsible for death and disease among millions of children. Diarrhea and worm infections weaken children and make them more susceptible to malnutrition and opportunistic infections like pneumonia, measles and malaria. The combined effects of inadequate sanitation, unsafe water supply and poor personal hygiene are responsible for many of childhood deaths. Every year, the failure to tackle these deficits results in severe welfare losses - wasted time, reduced productivity, ill health, impaired learning, environmental degradation and lost opportunities. Fundamental behavior changes are required before the use of improved facilities and services can be integrated into daily life. Many hygiene behaviors and habits are formed in childhood and, therefore, school health and hygiene education programs are an important part of water and sanitation improvements. Most basic sanitation technologies are not expensive to implement. However, those facing the problems of inadequate sanitation may not be aware of either the origin of their ills, or the true costs of poor sanitation and hygiene. As a result, in most of the developing countries those without sanitation are hard to convince of the need to invest scarce resources in sanitation facilities, or of the critical importance of changing long-held habits and unhygienic behaviors. Consequently, the people's representatives - governments and elected political leaders - rarely give sanitation or hygiene improvements the priority that is needed in order to tackle the massive sanitation deficit faced by the developing world. Children bear the brunt of sanitation-related impacts - their health, nutrition, growth, education, self-respect, and life opportunities suffer as a result of inadequate sanitation. Without improved sanitation, many of the current generation of children in developing countries are unlikely to develop to their full potential. Countries that don't take urgent action to redress sanitation deficiencies will find their future development and prosperity impaired.

Limitations and Exceptions: There are three main ways to meet the criteria for having a safely managed sanitation service (People should use improved sanitation facilities that are not shared with other households, and the excreta produced should either be: treated and disposed of in situ; stored temporality and then emptied, transported and treated off-site, or transported through a sewer with wastewater and then treated off-site). Many countries lack information on either wastewater treatment or the management of on-site sanitation. A national estimate is produced if information is available for the dominant type of sanitation system. If no information is available, it is assumed that 50 percent is safely managed. Regional and income group estimates are made when data are available for at least 30 percent of the population.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: Data on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene are produced by the Joint Monitoring Programme of the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) based on administrative sources, national censuses and nationally representative household surveys. WHO/UNICEF defines safely managed sanitation facilities as improved sanitation facilities that are not shared with other households and where excreta are safely disposed of in situ or transported and treated offsite. Improved sanitation facilities include flush/pour flush to piped sewer systems, septic tanks or pit latrines: ventilated improved pit latrines, compositing toilets or pit latrines with slabs.

Aggregation method: Weighted average

Periodicity: Annual