People using at least basic sanitation services (% of population) - Country Ranking - Asia

Definition: The percentage of people using at least basic sanitation services, that is, improved sanitation facilities that are not shared with other households. This indicator encompasses both people using basic sanitation services as well as those using safely managed sanitation services. 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 Bahrain 100.00 2020
1 Kuwait 100.00 2020
1 Macao SAR, China 100.00 2020
1 Qatar 100.00 2020
1 Saudi Arabia 100.00 2020
1 Singapore 100.00 2020
1 Uzbekistan 100.00 2020
8 Iraq 99.97 2020
9 Israel 99.95 2020
10 Korea 99.94 2020
11 Japan 99.92 2020
12 Malaysia 99.58 2018
13 Turkmenistan 99.41 2020
14 Oman 99.32 2020
15 United Arab Emirates 99.23 2020
16 Turkey 99.22 2020
17 Lebanon 99.20 2020
18 Thailand 98.71 2020
19 Kyrgyz Republic 97.89 2020
20 Kazakhstan 97.87 2020
21 Jordan 97.08 2020
22 Tajikistan 96.77 2020
23 Hong Kong SAR, China 96.50 2020
24 Brunei 96.35 2015
25 Azerbaijan 96.13 2019
26 Armenia 93.94 2020
27 Sri Lanka 93.65 2020
28 China 92.38 2020
29 Iran 90.27 2020
30 Syrian Arab Republic 89.69 2020
31 Russia 89.39 2020
32 Vietnam 89.25 2020
33 Indonesia 86.46 2020
34 Georgia 85.77 2020
35 Dem. People's Rep. Korea 84.67 2020
36 Philippines 82.26 2020
37 Lao PDR 79.48 2020
38 Nepal 76.61 2020
39 Bhutan 76.51 2020
40 Myanmar 73.64 2020
41 India 71.27 2020
42 Cambodia 68.77 2020
43 Pakistan 68.40 2020
44 Mongolia 67.74 2020
45 Timor-Leste 56.77 2020
46 Bangladesh 54.16 2020
47 Yemen 54.12 2020
48 Afghanistan 50.50 2020

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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: National, regional and income group estimates are made when data are available for at least 50 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 basic sanitation facilities as improved sanitation facilities that are not shared with other households. 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