Toilet statistics span more than fixture ownership: they also measure sanitation service levels, water efficiency, facility usability and bathroom injuries. The figures below identify the population, geography and measurement period so unlike household, school, health-care and U.S. injury measures are not treated as one indicator.
Key Toilet Statistics
These are the most useful headline figures across the available toilet and sanitation data:
- In 2024, 58% of the global population used safely managed sanitation services.
- Between 2015 and 2024, 1.2 billion people gained access to safely managed sanitation worldwide.
- From 2015 to 2024, rural safely managed sanitation coverage rose from 36% to 49% worldwide.
- From 2015 to 2024, urban safely managed sanitation coverage rose from 59% to 66% worldwide.
- In 2024, 3.4 billion people lacked safely managed sanitation globally.
- In 2024, 354 million people still practised open defecation worldwide.
- By 2030, low-income countries would need an 18-fold increase in current progress to reach universal basic sanitation.
- WaterSense-labeled toilets use 1.28 gallons per flush or less.
- Older inefficient U.S. toilets can use as much as 6 gallons per flush.
- Toilets account for nearly 30% of average indoor household water consumption in the United States.
- In 2025, 77% of schools worldwide had a basic sanitation service.
- In 2025, about 460 million school-age children lacked basic sanitation at school worldwide.
- In 2023, 8% of health care facilities had no sanitation service globally.
- In 2023, about 660 million people were represented by health care facilities with no sanitation service.
- In 2008, U.S. emergency departments treated an estimated 234,094 nonfatal bathroom injuries among people aged 15 and older.
- In 2008, toilet-area injuries occurred at a rate of 22.5 per 100,000 U.S. people aged 15 and older.
- In 2008, falls caused 81.1% of nonfatal bathroom injuries among U.S. people aged 15 and older.
Contents
- Key Toilet Statistics
- Global Toilet Statistics and Safely Managed Sanitation Trends
- Household Toilet Access by Rural, Urban and Income Context
- Toilet Water-Use Statistics and Efficiency Benchmarks
- School Toilet and Sanitation Statistics
- Health-Care Facility Toilet and Sanitation Statistics
- Bathroom Toilet Injury Statistics in the United States
Global Toilet Statistics and Safely Managed Sanitation Trends
The WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) defines safely managed sanitation more strictly than simply having access to a toilet. It reflects the service ladder used for internationally comparable estimates, so basic, limited, unimproved and open-defecation categories should not be substituted for one another.
| Global household sanitation measure | Period | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Safely managed sanitation coverage | 2024 | 58% of the population |
| Safely managed sanitation coverage | 2015–2024 | Rose from 48% to 58% |
| People lacking safely managed sanitation | 2024 | 3.4 billion |
| People using only basic sanitation | 2024 | 1.9 billion |
| People using limited sanitation | 2024 | 560 million |
| People using unimproved facilities | 2024 | 555 million |
Source: Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000–2024: special focus on inequalities. These are JMP estimates, and the population categories include people with lower service levels as well as open defecation; they are not a count of toilets installed.
An estimated 1.2 billion people gained access to safely managed sanitation between 2015 and 2024. Over the same period, the number of people practising open defecation fell by 429 million, although 354 million people still practised it in 2024.
Household Toilet Access by Rural, Urban and Income Context
Sanitation access differs by settlement type and context. JMP estimates show improvement in both rural and urban populations, but the measures describe population coverage rather than the number or condition of individual household fixtures.
| Population or context | Period | Safely managed sanitation result |
|---|---|---|
| Rural population worldwide | 2015–2024 | Rose from 36% to 49% |
| Urban population worldwide | 2015–2024 | Rose from 59% to 66% |
| Fragile contexts versus other countries | 2024 | Coverage was 33 percentage points lower |
| Low-income countries | 2024 baseline and 2030 target | An 18-fold increase in current progress would be needed for universal basic sanitation |
The low-income-country figure is an acceleration scenario, not a forecast that the target will be achieved. Safely managed sanitation estimates were available for 145 countries, while global household WASH indicators were available as Tier 1 data for more than 50% of the world’s population.
Related WASH measures show why sanitation should remain distinct from hygiene. In 2024, 1.7 billion people lacked basic hygiene services at home, including 611 million people with no household hygiene service; neither figure is a toilet-access measure.
Toilet Water-Use Statistics and Efficiency Benchmarks
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency WaterSense figures describe product specifications and household benchmarks, not a universal average for every toilet or home. Water use depends on fixture age, occupancy, flush frequency, leaks, water prices and retrofit assumptions.
| Toilet or household benchmark | Result |
|---|---|
| WaterSense-labeled toilet maximum use | 1.28 gallons per flush or less |
| Federal standard comparison | 20% below the 1.6-gallon standard |
| Older inefficient toilet upper-end use | As much as 6 gallons per flush |
| Toilets’ share of average indoor household water use | Nearly 30% |
| Replacing all old inefficient toilets | 13,000 gallons saved per average family-year |
| EPA water-cost benchmark for that replacement | About $130 per average family-year |
Source: Statistics and Facts | WaterSense. EPA says WaterSense labels products that are 20% more water-efficient while meeting performance requirements, but that program criterion is not a promise that every toilet saves 20% versus every predecessor.
The same EPA source estimates that household leaks can waste 180 gallons per week on average and nearly 900 billion gallons nationwide annually. Those leak figures cover household leaks broadly, not toilet-only leakage.
School Toilet and Sanitation Statistics
School sanitation is measured at the school level and includes service availability, usability and privacy criteria. It therefore cannot be combined directly with household sanitation coverage or interpreted as a count of school toilet fixtures.
| School sanitation category | 2025 worldwide estimate |
|---|---|
| Basic sanitation service | 77% of schools |
| Limited sanitation service | 11% of schools |
| No sanitation service | 12% of schools |
| School-age children lacking basic sanitation | About 460 million |
| Of those children, no sanitation service | 244 million |
| Of those children, improved facilities not single-sex or usable | 216 million |
Source: WASH in schools. The child estimates and school percentages use related but different denominators.
Basic school sanitation coverage rose from 67% in 2015 to 77% in 2025. The reported average annual increase was 0.9 percentage points, which describes the historical rate and should not be treated as a linear guarantee.
Secondary schools had 79% basic sanitation coverage in 2025, compared with 75% for primary schools worldwide. A pre-primary global estimate was unavailable.
Health-Care Facility Toilet and Sanitation Statistics
Health-care facility sanitation data describe facilities and the populations associated with them, not household toilet ownership or the number of patients treated. In the global 2023 dataset, basic-service coverage could not be calculated, but the no-service estimate was available.
| Health-care sanitation measure | 2023 result |
|---|---|
| Facilities with no sanitation service | 8% globally |
| People represented by those facilities | About 660 million |
| Basic sanitation coverage, sub-Saharan Africa | 22% of facilities |
| Basic sanitation coverage, Northern Africa and Western Asia | 36% of facilities |
| Countries with estimates exceeding 75% basic coverage | 11 of 51 |
Source: WASH in health care facilities 2023 data update: special focus on primary healthcare. No sanitation means no toilets or only unimproved sanitation, and the country denominator is countries with estimates rather than all countries.
Fragile-context estimates add population scale but use a different framing. In 2023, 1.6 billion people in fragile contexts lacked basic sanitation at their health-care facilities, while 1.1 billion were affected by poor hygiene practices and 717 million lacked basic water services there.
Globally, 9% of health-care facilities had no hygiene service in 2023. Basic hygiene coverage was 34% in sub-Saharan Africa and 58% in Northern Africa and Western Asia; hygiene and water-service deficits remain distinct from toilet availability.
Bathroom Toilet Injury Statistics in the United States
The CDC study below covers weighted estimates of nonfatal, emergency-department-treated bathroom injuries among U.S. people aged 15 and older in 2008. It is historical prevalence evidence, excludes fatal injuries, and does not isolate toilet-product defects.
| U.S. bathroom injury measure | 2008 result |
|---|---|
| Nonfatal bathroom injuries treated in emergency departments | Estimated 234,094 |
| Overall bathroom injury rate | 96.4 per 100,000 people aged 15+ |
| Injuries on or near toilets | 22.5 per 100,000 people aged 15+ |
| Falls’ share of bathroom injuries | 81.1% |
| Standing, sitting down or using the toilet | About 14.1% |
| Contusions or abrasions | 29.3% of injuries |
| Head or neck as injured body part | 31.2% of injuries |
Source: Nonfatal Bathroom Injuries Among Persons Aged ≥15 Years — United States, 2008.
Toilet-area injury rates increased from 4.1 per 100,000 among people aged 15–24 to 266.6 per 100,000 among people aged 85 and older. Among people aged 65 and older, toilet-associated events represented 19% to 37% of injuries across the older 10-year age groups.
Most patients, 84.9%, were treated and released, while 13.7% were treated and then hospitalized. The source notes that disposition percentages may not sum to 100% because of rounding or other dispositions, and event coding was based on brief emergency-department narratives.