Countries With the Lowest Basic Water Access

Every country with a figure for basic water access, ranked from lowest to highest. The top three are Congo, Dem. Rep. (35.7%), Central African Republic (36.5%) and South Sudan (39.7%). The middle country of the 214 has 97.3%.

What this measures

People using at least basic drinking water services (% of population). Source: World Bank. For this measure, higher is better.

This measure mostly follows how rich a country is, so this ranking is close to a ranking by national income. Each country’s page also ranks it against countries with similar incomes, which is often the fairer comparison.

The full ranking

Each country’s latest figure, from 2016–2024. The year beside each value says when it was measured.

More on basic water access

• Countries With the Highest Basic Water Access
• Basic water access by country: trend over time and what it goes with

Related rankings

• Countries With the Lowest Life Expectancy
• Countries With the Lowest Infant Mortality
• Countries With the Lowest Under-5 Mortality
• Countries With the Lowest Health Spending
• Countries With the Lowest Suicide Rates
• Countries With the Lowest Hospital Beds
• Countries With the Lowest Basic Sanitation
• Countries With the Lowest Child Stunting

A ranking describes countries, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All country rankings.