People using safely managed sanitation services, rural (% of rural 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
2 Austria 99.20 2020
3 Switzerland 98.95 2020
4 Netherlands 97.47 2020
5 Kyrgyz Republic 96.46 2020
6 Italy 94.29 2020
7 United Kingdom 93.58 2020
8 Israel 92.71 2020
9 Germany 91.63 2020
10 Sweden 90.57 2020
11 Luxembourg 89.34 2020
12 Lithuania 86.22 2020
13 Canada 84.10 2020
14 Hungary 80.69 2020
15 Turkey 79.87 2020
16 Slovak Republic 75.01 2020
17 Ireland 72.95 2020
18 Paraguay 70.72 2020
19 Honduras 70.64 2020
20 Bhutan 66.77 2020
21 Philippines 65.84 2020
22 Myanmar 64.01 2020
23 Tunisia 62.88 2020
24 Egypt 62.74 2020
25 Ecuador 60.27 2020
26 Lao PDR 60.27 2020
27 Bulgaria 60.09 2020
28 Tajikistan 59.26 2020
29 Rwanda 53.83 2020
30 Albania 53.61 2020
31 Russia 52.17 2020
32 Lesotho 50.97 2020
33 Cuba 50.95 2020
34 India 50.52 2020
35 Nepal 50.24 2020
36 Samoa 50.15 2020
37 Belarus 48.98 2020
38 Mongolia 48.71 2020
39 Georgia 44.48 2020
40 Iraq 44.39 2020
41 China 43.93 2020
42 Bangladesh 41.86 2020
43 Montenegro 38.90 2020
44 Tonga 36.97 2020
45 Costa Rica 36.57 2020
46 Suriname 33.95 2020
47 São Tomé and Principe 30.35 2020
48 Zimbabwe 30.24 2020
49 Kenya 29.48 2020
50 Mali 27.99 2020
51 Kiribati 27.40 2020
52 Nigeria 25.59 2020
53 The Gambia 24.19 2020
54 Senegal 23.90 2020
55 Zambia 23.75 2020
56 Malawi 23.62 2020
57 Algeria 22.56 2020
58 Thailand 22.07 2020
59 Tanzania 21.75 2020
60 Mozambique 21.28 2020
61 Djibouti 20.93 2020
62 Somalia 20.88 2020
63 Serbia 19.89 2020
64 North Macedonia 17.89 2020
65 Uganda 15.57 2020
66 Ghana 14.98 2020
67 Dem. Rep. Congo 11.17 2020
68 Niger 10.85 2020
69 Sierra Leone 9.75 2020
70 Madagascar 7.96 2020
71 Tuvalu 7.51 2018
72 Togo 6.78 2020
73 Central African Republic 5.92 2020
74 Guinea-Bissau 4.20 2020
75 Ethiopia 4.12 2020
76 Chad 3.33 2020
77 Dem. People's Rep. Korea 1.23 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: 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