Hygiene access is measured through facilities, supplies and services across homes, schools and healthcare settings. The statistics below distinguish basic service access from observed behavior and separate household hygiene from sanitation, health outcomes and menstrual health.
Key Hygiene Statistics
The following figures summarize the most important global and regional measures:
- In 2024, 1.7 billion people worldwide lacked a handwashing facility with soap and water at home.
- In 2022, 75% of the global population, about 6 billion people, had a basic household handwashing facility with soap and water.
- In 2022, 17% of the global population, about 1.4 billion people, had a handwashing facility but lacked water or soap.
- In 2022, 8% of the global population, about 640 million people, had no handwashing facility at home.
- Between 2015 and 2022, global basic household hygiene coverage increased from 67% to 75%.
- In 2023, 67% of schools worldwide had a basic hygiene service.
- In 2023, 646 million children worldwide lacked a basic hygiene service at school.
- In 2023, 406 million children attended schools with no hygiene service.
- From 2015 to 2023, Sub-Saharan Africa’s basic school hygiene coverage rose from 23% to 37%.
- In 2023, 57% of health-care facilities worldwide met basic hygiene service levels.
- In the 2021 health-care baseline, about 688 million people received care at facilities with no hygiene services.
- In 2022, 57% of the global population, about 4.6 billion people, used safely managed sanitation services.
- In 2022, about 419 million people worldwide still practised open defecation.
- In 2019, better water, sanitation and hygiene could have prevented an estimated 395,000 deaths among children under five worldwide.
- In 2023, 2.6% of hospitalized patients in U.S. acute-care hospitals had one or more health-care-associated infections.
- An estimated 2.1 billion women and adolescent girls worldwide menstruate.
- An estimated 500 million people who menstruate lack the full range of menstrual materials and appropriate WASH facilities.
- Around 39% of schools in countries with emerging national data provide menstrual health education.
Contents
- Global household hygiene access and handwashing trends
- School hygiene statistics and progress since 2015
- Regional school hygiene gaps
- Healthcare-facility hygiene and infection prevention
- Sanitation, hygiene and measured health outcomes
- Menstrual hygiene, education and facility access
Global Household Hygiene Access and Handwashing Trends
The World Health Organization’s 2024 global summary reports that 1.7 billion people lacked a handwashing facility with soap and water at home. This is a measure of household facility access, not a direct observation of whether or how often people wash their hands (Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)).
The WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) provides a comparable 2022 breakdown:
| Household hygiene status, 2022 | Global population | Approximate people |
|---|---|---|
| Basic service: soap and water available | 75% | 6 billion |
| Limited service: facility present, water or soap missing | 17% | 1.4 billion |
| No service: no handwashing facility | 8% | 640 million |
Source: Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000-2022: Special focus on gender. Basic service means a handwashing facility with soap and water available at home; the limited category combines missing water and missing soap.
Across the same JMP series, basic household hygiene coverage rose from 67% in 2015 to 75% in 2022. The report also estimates that about 25% of the global population, or roughly 2.0 billion people, lacked basic household hygiene in 2022; approximately 1.3 billion had limited service and 653 million had no facility, with rounded components that may not sum exactly to the headline total.
The 2022 household handwashing estimates covered 84 countries and only four of eight Sustainable Development Goal regions. That coverage limitation means the global aggregate is modelled or estimated rather than a complete census.
Related WASH measures moved on different trajectories: safely managed drinking-water coverage rose from 69% to 73% between 2015 and 2022, while safely managed sanitation increased from 49% to 57%. These are related indicators, but neither is a direct measure of handwashing access or behavior.
School Hygiene Statistics and Progress Since 2015
In 2023, 67% of schools globally had a basic hygiene service, while 12% had a limited service and 21% had no hygiene service. For schools, basic service means handwashing facilities with soap and water available; the categories do not measure individual student behavior (Progress on Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Schools 2015-2023: Special focus on menstrual health).
The global trend improved between 2015 and 2023:
| School hygiene category | 2015 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| Basic service | 58% | 67% |
| Limited service | 10% | 12% |
| No service | 32% | 21% |
The JMP report gives an average increase of 1.05 percentage points per year over 2015–2023. This is an average trend rate, not a claim that progress was constant every year.
In 2023, an estimated 646 million children lacked a basic hygiene service at school, including 406 million children attending schools with no hygiene service. National estimates were available for 134 countries, areas and territories: 67 had more than 99% of schools with basic service, 80 had more than 90%, and 98 had coverage above 75%.
These figures describe the availability of facilities and supplies. They should not be read as prevalence estimates for handwashing, compliance, or the quality of maintenance.
Regional School Hygiene Gaps and Trends
School access differs sharply by region and country group. The JMP estimates below compare basic hygiene coverage in 2015 and 2023; they are weighted or modelled regional aggregates that depend on available national data.
| Region or country group | 2015 basic service | 2023 basic service |
|---|---|---|
| Sub-Saharan Africa | 23% | 37% |
| Central and Southern Asia | 46% | 57% |
| Latin America and the Caribbean | 57% | 61% |
| Northern Africa and Western Asia | 77% | 84% |
| Eastern and South-Eastern Asia | 82% | 91% |
| Europe and Northern America | 97% | 98% |
| Least developed countries | 23% | 43% |
| Fragile contexts | 25% | 42% |
Sub-Saharan Africa reached 37% basic coverage in 2023, with 15% of schools in the limited category and 48% with no service. Central and Southern Asia reached 57%, with 21% limited and 21% without service.
Latin America and the Caribbean rose from 57% to 61%, while Northern Africa and Western Asia increased from 77% to 84%. Eastern and South-Eastern Asia moved from 82% to 91%, and Europe and Northern America from 97% to 98%.
Oceania was the only SDG region shown with a decline, from 21% basic coverage in 2015 to 19% in 2023. The report cautions that small or changing data coverage can influence interpretation, and the same broader limitation applies to country-group comparisons.
Healthcare-Facility Hygiene and Infection Prevention
Healthcare hygiene uses a stricter service definition than a single handwashing point. In the 2021 baseline, basic hygiene required facilities at both points of care and toilets; 51% of assessed facilities met that standard, while 68% had facilities at points of care and 65% had water-and-soap handwashing facilities at toilets (Half of health care facilities globally lack basic hygiene services – WHO, UNICEF).
The baseline represented 40 countries and 35% of the world’s population. About 3.85 billion people used the assessed facilities, and an estimated 688 million people received care at facilities with no hygiene services.
In the 2021 baseline for Sub-Saharan Africa, 73% of health-care facilities had alcohol-based hand rub or water and soap at points of care, compared with 37% having water-and-soap facilities at toilets. Hospitals had point-of-care hand-hygiene facilities at a rate of 87%, compared with 68% for other health-care facilities.
The JMP’s 2022 global estimate found that 57% of health-care facilities met basic hygiene service levels, compared with 78% meeting basic water service levels (Water, sanitation, hygiene, environmental cleaning and waste management in health care facilities: 2023 data update and special focus on primary health care). The report notes that ageing data prevented a 2023 global estimate, so these figures should not be treated as interchangeable annual observations.
In the 2021 baseline, about 3% of urban and 11% of rural health-care facilities had no water service. Water availability is related infrastructure, but it is not itself a direct measure of hygiene practice.
Sanitation, Hygiene and Measured Health Outcomes
Sanitation is measured separately from household handwashing, although both are part of the wider WASH system. In 2022, 57% of the global population, or about 4.6 billion people, used safely managed sanitation services, while 88%, or about 7.2 billion, used at least a basic sanitation service (Sanitation).
The safely managed total included 33% of the global population, about 2.7 billion people, using private sanitation connected to sewers with wastewater treated, and 21%, about 1.7 billion, using toilets or latrines where excreta were safely disposed of in situ. More than 1.5 billion people lacked basic sanitation services, and about 419 million still practised open defecation in 2022.
Wastewater treatment remains an important environmental pathway: in 2020, 44% of household wastewater generated globally was discharged without safe treatment. WHO also estimates that at least 10% of the world’s population is thought to consume food irrigated with wastewater; the fact sheet does not specify a single measurement year for that approximate estimate.
Better WASH conditions could have prevented an estimated 395,000 deaths among children under five worldwide in 2019. This attributable estimate combines water, sanitation and hygiene, so it cannot be assigned to hygiene alone.
A U.S. healthcare outcome measure provides a different perspective. In 2023, 2.6% of hospitalized patients in the CDC prevalence survey had one or more health-care-associated infections, and CDC estimated 518,000 such infections in U.S. acute-care hospitals (HAIs: Reports and Data).
These are care-associated outcomes, not counts caused specifically by poor hygiene.
Menstrual Hygiene, Education and Facility Access
WHO estimates that 2.1 billion women and adolescent girls worldwide menstruate. The organization notes that robust research on menstruation remains limited and uses inclusive language for people who menstruate (Menstrual health).
An estimated 500 million people who menstruate lack access to the full range of menstrual materials and appropriate WASH facilities. This estimate was modelled from data collected from 2000 to 2019 and covers a bundle of materials, facilities and services rather than one product.
Emerging national data describe school support but do not provide a complete global census:
- Around 39% of schools provide menstrual health education.
- Around 31% of schools have bins for menstrual waste in girls’ toilets, based on emerging national data collected in 2022–2023.
The education figure comes from the WHO menstrual-health fact sheet, while the waste-bin indicator is reported in the JMP school report. Indicator coverage and definitions vary across countries, and neither measure directly captures affordability, personal use, privacy, or the quality of facilities.