As humans, we drink a lot of water. Generally speaking, the more clean water that is available, the more we drink. A few key factors contribute to the increase in fresh water consumption—including population growth, urbanization, and quality of life.
As those things increase, so does the amount of water we consume. But it isn’t just human consumption that contributes to the increasing use of water. Countries also use fresh water for industry, irrigation, livestock, and other purposes.
All of that factors into the annual water footprint statistics reported in this post from WQP (Water Quality Products) and attributed to Waterless Co. Inc. According to that post, here are the 10 countries that use the most water and how much they use annually.
10 Countries That Use the Most Water
- China – 362 trillion gallons
- United States – 216 trillion gallons
- Brazil – 95 trillion gallons
- Russia – 71 trillion gallons
- Mexico – 53 trillion gallons
- India – 30 trillion gallons
- England – 20 trillion gallons
- France – 20 trillion gallons
- Canada – 19 trillion gallons
- Australia – 12 trillion gallons
A Few Notable Worldwide Water Use Stats
- 878 trillion gallons of water are used by the 10 countries listed above annually
- 673 trillion gallons of water are used by just the top three countries on the list (China, U.S., & Brazil)
- With a population of 1.1 billion people, India uses the least amount of water per person of all the countries on the list
- With a population of 300 million people, the United States uses the most water per person of all the countries on the list
