Sanitation statistics describe more than toilet ownership: they measure whether facilities are private, improved, and connected to safe excreta management. The latest global household estimate, for 2022, found 57% of people using safely managed sanitation, while newer JMP trend reporting covers progress through 2024.
Key Sanitation Statistics
The most broadly useful sanitation statistics span access, service quality, health, schools, and economic effects:
- In 2022, 57% of the global population, or 4.6 billion people, used safely managed sanitation services.
- In 2022, 43% of the global population, or 3.5 billion people, lacked safely managed sanitation.
- In 2022, 88% of the global population, or 7.2 billion people, used at least a basic sanitation service.
- In 2022, more than 1.5 billion people lacked basic sanitation services globally.
- In 2022, about 419 million people practiced open defecation worldwide.
- In 2022, about 570 million people used sanitation facilities shared among several households globally.
- In 2022, about 545 million people used poorly constructed latrines or buckets globally.
- Between 2000 and 2024, about 2.8 billion people gained access to safely managed sanitation worldwide.
- In 2022, 33% of the global population used private sewer-connected sanitation with treated wastewater.
- In 2022, 21% of the global population used sanitation with excreta safely disposed of in situ.
- In 2016, 66% of schools globally had a basic sanitation service.
- In 2016, 53% of schools globally had basic hygiene services.
- In the latest WHO estimate cited in 2024, unsafe sanitation accounted for 564,000 deaths each year globally.
- In 2019, unsafe WASH caused an estimated 1.4 million preventable deaths globally.
- In 2019, unsafe WASH could have prevented an estimated 74 million DALYs globally.
- In 2019, unsafe WASH accounted for 69% of all diarrhoea deaths globally.
- In a 2012 WHO economic study, each US$1 invested in sanitation was estimated to return US$5.50.
- Across Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, poor sanitation and hygiene were estimated to cost US$9 billion annually in economic costs in 2005 prices.
Contents
- Global sanitation statistics: access levels and service gaps
- Sanitation statistics by service type and population left behind
- Sanitation progress statistics from 2000 to 2024
- Sanitation statistics in schools and health settings
- Health outcomes linked to inadequate sanitation statistics
- Economic costs and returns in sanitation statistics
Global Sanitation Statistics: Access Levels and Service Gaps
The WHO and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) defines safely managed sanitation as an improved facility that is not shared and whose excreta are safely disposed of in situ or removed and treated off-site. Basic sanitation is a lower service level, so the two percentages answer different questions.
In 2022, 57% of the global population, equivalent to 4.6 billion people, used safely managed sanitation services. The WHO sanitation fact sheet reports that 43%, or 3.5 billion people, lacked that safely managed level; this includes people at lower service levels and people practicing open defecation, not only people with no toilet. (WHO, “Sanitation”)
At the lower threshold, 88% of the global population, or 7.2 billion people, used at least a basic sanitation service in 2022. More than 1.5 billion people still lacked basic sanitation, and about 419 million practiced open defecation. (WHO, “Sanitation”)
The distinction between thresholds is important for interpreting the gap:
- About 1.9 billion people used basic private sanitation facilities that were not classified as safely managed in 2022; this category does not mean they had no sanitation access.
- About 570 million people used facilities shared among several households in 2022, and shared facilities are excluded from the safely managed household definition.
- About 545 million people used poorly constructed latrines or buckets in 2022.
- About 1.7 billion people used toilets or latrines where excreta were safely disposed of in situ in 2022, while about 2.7 billion used private sewer-connected facilities from which wastewater was treated; these are components of safely managed sanitation and should not be summed without checking overlap.
Sanitation Statistics by Service Type and Population Left Behind
The 2022 service mix shows why a single access percentage can hide meaningful differences in safety and privacy. Private sewer-connected sanitation with treated wastewater accounted for 33% of the global population, while sanitation with excreta safely disposed of in situ accounted for 21%. (WHO, “Sanitation”)
| 2022 global household measure | Population share or count | Definition or scope |
|---|---|---|
| Safely managed sanitation | 57%, 4.6 billion | Improved, not shared, with safe excreta disposal |
| At least basic sanitation | 88%, 7.2 billion | Lower JMP service threshold |
| Private sewer-connected, treated wastewater | 33% | Safely managed component |
| In-situ safe excreta disposal | 21% | Safely managed component |
| Open defecation | About 419 million | Distinct JMP sanitation category |
Using the rounded reported percentages, 12 percentage points of the global population were below the basic service level or practicing open defecation in 2022. The rounded figures also imply a 31-percentage-point difference between the population lacking safely managed sanitation and the population lacking at least basic sanitation; both are derived comparisons between different thresholds, so they should be treated as approximate. (WHO, “Sanitation”)
The WHO monitoring page reports 3.5 billion people without safely managed sanitation, including the 419 million practicing open defecation. The open-defecation group is therefore included in the larger unserved total, rather than added to it. (WHO, “WASH monitoring”)
The JMP regional snapshot data table states that 2022 sanitation estimates covered 98% of the world population overall, 96% for open-defecation data, and 86% for safely managed sanitation data. These are data-availability coverage rates, not the shares of people receiving the corresponding services. (JMP, “Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000-2024”)
Sanitation Progress Statistics from 2000 to 2024
The JMP’s longer trend window places sanitation gains against population growth. The global population increased from 6.2 billion in 2000 to 8.2 billion in 2024, while about 2.8 billion people gained access to safely managed sanitation over the same period.
The report describes that gain as approximately one-third of the world population; it is a report description, not a newly calculated percentage. (JMP, “Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000-2024”)
| Trend measure | Period | Reported figure |
|---|---|---|
| Global population | 2000 | 6.2 billion |
| Global population | 2024 | 8.2 billion |
| People gaining safely managed sanitation access | 2000–2024 | About 2.8 billion |
Long-run comparisons should retain the distinction between a cumulative gain and a current service level. A gain of 2.8 billion people across 24 years does not mean that every person counted in 2024 received a new service in a single year, nor does it remove the service-quality differences described by the sanitation ladder.
The JMP database reported nearly 9,000 national datasets and estimates for 237 countries, areas and territories in its 2023 database status description. Those figures describe the monitoring system’s geographic and data inventory, not household sanitation coverage. (JMP, “Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000-2022”)
Sanitation Statistics in Schools and Health Settings
School sanitation statistics use schools as their population, not households. In 2016, 66% of schools globally had a basic sanitation service, compared with 69% with basic drinking-water service and 53% with basic hygiene services. (WHO/UNICEF JMP, “Drinking-water, sanitation and hygiene in schools”)
| Global school service | 2016 share of schools |
|---|---|
| Basic sanitation | 66% |
| Basic drinking water | 69% |
| Basic hygiene | 53% |
The school sanitation share was 13 percentage points higher than the basic hygiene share in 2016, based on the rounded reported figures. Drinking water and hygiene provide context for the school environment, but they are not household sanitation coverage and should not be combined with the 2022 global household denominator.
This population distinction matters when comparing progress. A school can have a basic sanitation service under the school monitoring framework while household access in the surrounding population is measured using a separate JMP ladder and period.
Health Outcomes Linked to Inadequate Sanitation Statistics
WHO’s latest sanitation fact sheet estimate cited in 2024 attributes 564,000 deaths each year to unsafe sanitation, largely through diarrhoeal disease. This is a modeled attributable burden estimate, not an observed death-certificate count. (WHO, “Sanitation”)
Broader WASH estimates combine unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene, so they should not be relabeled as sanitation-only outcomes:
- In 2019, unsafe WASH caused an estimated 1.4 million preventable deaths globally and could have prevented 74 million DALYs.
- Unsafe WASH accounted for 69% of all diarrhoea deaths in 2019 globally, and more than 1 million people died from diarrhoea due to unsafe WASH.
- Unsafe hand hygiene practices were associated with 356,000 acute respiratory infection deaths in 2019 globally; this is a hand-hygiene component, not a sanitation-access measure.
- Better water, sanitation and hygiene could have prevented an estimated 395,000 deaths among children under five globally in 2019.
These figures come from different attribution categories and should be read separately. WHO’s earlier technical evidence attributed 280,000 diarrhoea deaths to inadequate sanitation in a 2012 estimate; that older methodology should not be combined with newer 2019 WASH totals. (WHO, “Water, sanitation and hygiene: burden of disease”; WHO, “Sanitation”)
Economic Costs and Returns in Sanitation Statistics
The economic evidence mixes a global investment-return estimate with historical country case studies. WHO’s 2012 economic study estimated a US$5.50 return for every US$1 invested in sanitation, including lower health costs, higher productivity and fewer premature deaths; this is not a guaranteed project-level return. (WHO, “Sanitation”)
A World Bank study of Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam estimated annual losses from poor sanitation and hygiene at US$2 billion in financial costs and US$9 billion in economic costs, using 2005 prices. Across the four countries, financial losses averaged 0.44% of annual GDP, while overall population welfare losses averaged 2% of GDP. (World Bank, “The Economic Impacts of Poor Sanitation in Africa”)
| Country | Estimated annual economic loss, 2005 prices | Per capita |
|---|---|---|
| Cambodia | US$448.0 million | US$32.4 |
| Indonesia | US$6,344.0 million | US$28.6 |
| Philippines | US$1,412.1 million | US$16.8 |
| Vietnam | US$780.1 million | US$9.3 |
The study’s modeled loss composition across the four countries was 54% health, 25% water resources, and 15% time spent accessing unimproved sanitation. The categories may not sum to every modeled component because of rounding or omitted categories. (World Bank, “The Economic Impacts of Poor Sanitation in Africa”)
Country impact shares varied materially:
- In Cambodia, health represented 41.8% of modeled economic losses and water represented 33.3%.
- In Indonesia, health represented 52.8% of modeled economic losses and water represented 23.8%.
- In the Philippines, health represented 71.6% of modeled economic losses and water represented 22.9%.
- In Vietnam, health represented 33.6% of modeled economic losses and water represented 36.8%.
These World Bank figures are historical four-country case-study estimates in 2005 prices. They are not current global market values, and they include poor sanitation and hygiene rather than sanitation alone.