During the 2022 fiscal year, approximately 79 million megaliters of water were consumed by industry, while around 1.8 million megaliters were consumed by households across Australia. Overall, consumption of water had increased compared to the previous year.

Water usage in Australia As most of the water supplied in Australia comes from surface water, such as rivers and lakes, ongoing drought has led to issues revolving around water security. Around three quarters of the country’s water usage was used for irrigation and industrial purposes. Agriculture was the largest water-consuming industry in general. While the Northern Territory had the highest per household consumption, water consumption varied significantly from region to region.

Drought in Australia

As Australia’s water demand continues to rise, the threat of water shortages has also increased. Australia has faced periods of drought throughout history and the more recent droughts have affected many regions across the country. The effects of drought can be linked to other catastrophic environmental events. The environmental and economic losses from the recent bushfires in Australia were particularly devastating.

During fiscal year 2022, around 1,779 gigaliters of water were consumed by households in Australia. The effective management of water supply and water consumption are important for Australia, a country which is the driest inhabited continent on earth.

During the fiscal year 2022, approximately 0.33 megaliters of water were consumed per household in the Northern Territory, the highest per household consumption in Australia. In the same year, households in Victoria consumed around 0.16 megaliters of water on average. 

Household spend on water services

The expenditure on water per kiloliter in Australia remained fairly stable between 2015 and 2022. The household expenditure on distributed water and wastewater services was relatively evenly split. While per household consumption was highest in the Northern Territory, the overall household expenditure on water services was the greatest in New South Wales, likely due to the size of its population.

Sources and usage

The leading water source in Australia is surface water, followed by groundwater, with just a small portion sourced from desalination plants. Water is a limited resource in most of Australia, due to its dry climate and the fact that the largest part of the country is desert or semi-arid. While household consumption of water is an important consideration, when looking at the distribution of water usage in Australia, the majority is used by the agriculture industry.

During fiscal year 2022, approximately 66,185 gigaliters of water were consumed by the electricity, gas, water, and waste services industry in Australia. The effective management of water supply and consumption are important for Australia, a country which is the driest inhabited continent on earth.

Graph and download economic data for Consumer Price Index: Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels (COICOP 04): Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels: Total for Australia (AUSCP040500GPQ) from Q4 1989 to Q3 2023 about water, fuels, Australia, electricity, gas, CPI, price index, indexes, and price.

The datasets presented on the Australian Landscape Water Balance portal (and by request) provide nationally consistent landscape water balance estimates daily, at high resolution (5 km) across Australia. The estimates are of water fluxes, soil moisture and groundwaterstores in the Australian landscape, and are based on a model that simulates the flow of water through the land portion of the landscape—through the vegetation and soil—and then out again through evapotranspiration, runoff or deep drainage to groundwater (as shown in the information sheet) Data from 2005 onwards is available from the portal, while earlier data (on request, up to 100 years, as well as more water balance variables) can be requested. The data is produced by the Bureau’s operational Australian Water Resources Assessment Landscape model. This model was developed through the Water Information Research and Development Alliance (WIRADA) between the Bureau and CSIRO. Nationally consistent simulated data is available on soil moisture in three different layers, runoff, evapotranspiration, deep drainage and precipitation, each at a spatial resolution of 25 square kilometres (a 5x5 km grid). The information is updated daily and is available at daily, monthly and annual timescales from 1911 onwards. The portal lets users zoom in to a given point, and then view a graph of the data either absolute values or relative to the historical climatology. Data can be downloaded as CSV for an individual point, aggregated to ariver catchment , Gridded data for the whole continent for one time-step can be downloaded as ascii, but for gridded continental data for multiple time-steps or variables, the output is provided in netcdf format.

During fiscal year 2022, approximately 0.81 megaliters of water was consumed per capita in Tasmania. This was the highest per capita consumption across all states in Australia, and was largely attributed to high industry water consumption.

This collection provides agricultural water supply data created for the purposes of national ecosystem services accounts. The agricultural water supply data provide information on final and intermediate ecosystem services across Australia. This comprises spatial data (GeoTIFF 250m grid) of annual (financial year, 2000-01 to 2022-23) irrigated agricultural water use and irrigated agricultural land; data tables of irrigated agricultural water use by State/Territory; data tables of the amount of water supplied by different ecosystem types, and maps and charts. Lineage: For methods on producing these data, see this citation in Related Links: Liu N, Smith GS, Evans D, Tetreault Campbell S, Pascoe S and Schmidt RK (2024) Methods for developing a national dataset for Australia’s ecosystem services: irrigated agricultural water supply (250 m resolution): 2000-01 to 2022-23. A report for the National Ecosystem Accounting Project. CSIRO, Australia. https://data.csiro.au/collection/csiro:63070

Australia GVA: 2015-16p: Trend: Electricity, Gas, Water & Waste Services: Water Supply & Waste Services data was reported at 4,404.000 AUD mn in Jun 2018. This records an increase from the previous number of 4,369.000 AUD mn for Mar 2018. Australia GVA: 2015-16p: Trend: Electricity, Gas, Water & Waste Services: Water Supply & Waste Services data is updated quarterly, averaging 3,201.000 AUD mn from Sep 1974 (Median) to Jun 2018, with 176 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 4,404.000 AUD mn in Jun 2018 and a record low of 2,027.000 AUD mn in Jun 1978. Australia GVA: 2015-16p: Trend: Electricity, Gas, Water & Waste Services: Water Supply & Waste Services data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Australian Bureau of Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Australia – Table AU.A197: SNA08: Gross Value Added: by Industry: Chain Linked: 2015-16 Price: Trend.

Australia GVA: 2007-08p: Trend: Electricity, Gas, Water & Waste Services: Water Supply & Waste Services data was reported at 2,574.000 AUD mn in Jun 2010. This records an increase from the previous number of 2,542.000 AUD mn for Mar 2010. Australia GVA: 2007-08p: Trend: Electricity, Gas, Water & Waste Services: Water Supply & Waste Services data is updated quarterly, averaging 1,986.000 AUD mn from Sep 1974 (Median) to Jun 2010, with 144 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 2,574.000 AUD mn in Jun 2010 and a record low of 1,314.000 AUD mn in Jun 1978. Australia GVA: 2007-08p: Trend: Electricity, Gas, Water & Waste Services: Water Supply & Waste Services data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Australian Bureau of Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Australia – Table AU.A205: SNA08: Gross Value Added: by Industry: Chain Linked: 2007-08 Price: Trend.

Graph and download economic data for Consumer Price Indices (CPIs, HICPs), COICOP 1999: Consumer Price Index: Water Supply and Miscellaneous Services Relating to the Dwelling for Australia (AUSCP040400GYQ) from Q2 1999 to Q4 2024 about water, miscellaneous, fuels, Australia, supplies, electricity, gas, services, CPI, price index, indexes, and price.

Water consumption in households and selected industries, 2008-09 to 2014-15. Information provided by Australian Bureau of Statistics. For further information see www.abs.gov.au. Found in: Water …Show full descriptionWater consumption in households and selected industries, 2008-09 to 2014-15. Information provided by Australian Bureau of Statistics. For further information see www.abs.gov.au. Found in: Water account, Australia, 2013–14, cat. no. 4610.0. Data used to produce Figure BLT11 in Built environment, SoE 2016. See https://soe.environment.gov.au/theme/built-environment/topic/2016/increased-consumption#built-environment-figure-BLT11

Per household water consumption by state and territory, 2008–09 to 2014–15 measured in kilolitres per household.

Data provided by the ABS: http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4610.0Main+Features12014-15?OpenDocument

Figure BLT43 in Built environment theme. https://soe.environment.gov.au/theme/built-environment/topic/2016/urban-environmental-efficiency-water-efficiency#built-environment-figure-BLT43

Australia GVA: 2005-06p: Trend: Electricity, Gas & Water: Water Supply, Sewerage & Drainage Services data was reported at 1,573.000 AUD mn in Jun 2008. This records a decrease from the previous number of 1,577.000 AUD mn for Mar 2008. Australia GVA: 2005-06p: Trend: Electricity, Gas & Water: Water Supply, Sewerage & Drainage Services data is updated quarterly, averaging 1,729.500 AUD mn from Sep 1974 (Median) to Jun 2008, with 136 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1,952.000 AUD mn in Sep 2002 and a record low of 1,204.000 AUD mn in Jun 1978. Australia GVA: 2005-06p: Trend: Electricity, Gas & Water: Water Supply, Sewerage & Drainage Services data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Australian Bureau of Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Australia – Table AU.A356: SNA93: Gross Value Added: by Industry: Chain Linked: 2005-06 Price.

During fiscal year 2022, over 34 million megaliters of water were consumed by industry, while around 34.5 thousand megaliters were consumed by households in the Australian state of Tasmania. New South Wales had the highest household consumption of water in the same year.

Abstract THIS DATASET IS A PRE-RELEASE VERSION. PLEASE USE GEOFABRIC HYDROLOGY REPORTING REGIONS DATASET This dataset and its metadata statement were supplied to the Bioregional Assessment …Show full descriptionAbstract THIS DATASET IS A PRE-RELEASE VERSION. PLEASE USE GEOFABRIC HYDROLOGY REPORTING REGIONS DATASET This dataset and its metadata statement were supplied to the Bioregional Assessment Programme by a third party and are presented here as originally supplied. Geofabric Hydrology Reporting Regions is derived from aggregations of contracted catchments from Geofabric Hydrology Reporting Catchments. This product contains two candidate reporting regions, namely AWRA Drainage Division for national scale reporting purposes and River Region for regional scale reporting purposes. More reporting regions may be added in future releases based on user requirements. This product contains four feature types including: AWRA Drainage Division, AWRA Drainage Division Contracted Catchment Lookup, River Region, and River Regions Contracted Catchment Lookup. Full metadata available at: https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/6f39e080-ded7-4563-a8f6-ab64da57e590/resource/6aa681fb-097d-4da7-ac85-a13a258cc353/download/hrregionsgdbv211.html Purpose The purpose of Geofabric Hydrology Reporting Regions is to provide a stable set of reporting boundaries for products such as the Bureau's Australian Water Resources Assessment (AWRA). It contains two levels of hydrological reporting regions. The first delineates national level Drainage Divisions and the second delineates regional level River Regions across Australia. The AWRA Drainage Division is defined for the purpose of providing a stable set of reporting regions specifically for the purpose of the Bureau's Australian Water Resources Assessment 2010 and are referred to as the 2010 Assessment Reporting Regions. The River Regions were based on a specification developed by Bureau hydrologists involved in water resources assessment in consultation with the Geofabric team and scientists from CSIRO and ANU. These boundaries were developed for use in regional scale reporting and hydrological modelling. The River Region boundaries were not used in the Australian Water Resources Dataset History Geofabric Hydrology Reporting Regions is part of a suite of Geofabric products produced by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. The geometry of this product is derived from aggregations of Contracted catchments within the Hydrology Reporting Catchments product. This product contains two candidate reporting regions, namely AWRA Drainage Divisions for national scale reporting purposes and River Regions for regional scale reporting purposes. More reporting regions will be added in future releases based on user requirements. The AWRA Drainage Divisions were defined for the purpose of providing a stable set of reporting regions specifically for the purpose of the Bureau's Australian Water Resources Assessment (AWRA) 2010 and are referred to as the 2010 Assessment Reporting Regions. The AWRA Drainage Divisions were based on the NCB Level 1 Drainage Division feature within the Geofabric Surface Catchments product with the addition of an extra division dividing NSW and Victoria. This division was based on a boundary derived from the NCB Level 2 Drainage Basin feature and was chosen to best approximate the border between New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria, creating the South East Coast (Victoria) and South East Coast (NSW) regions. The River Regions were based on a specification developed by Bureau hydrologists involved in water resource assessment in consultation with the Geofabric team and scientists from CSIRO and ANU. These boundaries were developed for use in regional scale reporting and hydrological modelling. The River Regions were based on the NCB Level 2 Drainage Basins, within the Geofabric Surface Catchments product, for every location in Australia except for the Murray Darling Basin (MDB) where a finer level of division was required. The boundaries within the MDB were originally developed on the selections of Pfafstetter levels 3 to 7 that best approximated the Australian Water Resource Council (AWRC) river basins. A set of decision rules was developed using evidence from the GEODATA 9 Digital Elevation Model (DEM-9S) Version 3.1 flow direction grid, the 1 second DEM-H Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (STRM) data, Bing Maps Satellite Images, Geofabric stream flow directions and Geofabric Surface Cartography data. Particular attention was given to areas with internal draining basins, minimal or no streams, and floodplain areas with anabranch and braided streams. These informed the creation of MDB Contracted nodes which correspond to features in the landscape with hydrological significance, with subsequent creation of Contracted catchments. Contracted catchments were then aggregated to create River Regions within the MDB. Processing steps: re-composited feature classes in the Geofabric Maintenance Geodatabase Feature Dataset are assigned unique Hydro-IDs using ESRI ArcHydro for Surface Water (ArcHydro: 1.4.0.180 and ApFramework: 3.1.0.84) feature classes from the Geofabric Maintenance Geodatabase Feature Dataset are extracted and reassigned to the Geofabric Hydrology Reporting Regions Feature Dataset within the Geofabric Hydrology Reporting Regions Geodatabase. A complete set of data mappings, from input source data to Geofabric Products, is included in the Geofabric Product Guide, Appendices. Changes at v2.1 ! Updates to the River Region names to conform with the Drainage Division and River Region graphic. Changes at v2.1.1 ! Change to the boundary of the Daly and Roper River Regions (affects both AWRADrainageDivision and RiverRegion) moving the area draining to Western Creek from the Daly River Region to the Roper River Region. ! Other minor small fixes addressing boundary consistency issues in coastal areas between RiverRegions-AWRADrainageDivisions-AHGFContractedCatchments. - Correction of name for RiverRegion, 'Moorabool River' renamed to 'Little River' Dataset Citation Bureau of Meteorology (2013) Australian Water Resource Assessment (AWRA) River Regions. Bioregional Assessment Source Dataset. Viewed 13 March 2019, http://data.bioregionalassessments.gov.au/dataset/d263c464-c700-4aa6-9e55-39b6b82115a0.

Australia GVA: 2014-15p: Trend: Electricity, Gas, Water & Waste Services: Water Supply & Waste Services data was reported at 4,402.000 AUD mn in Jun 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 4,344.000 AUD mn for Mar 2017. Australia GVA: 2014-15p: Trend: Electricity, Gas, Water & Waste Services: Water Supply & Waste Services data is updated quarterly, averaging 3,318.000 AUD mn from Sep 1974 (Median) to Jun 2017, with 172 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 4,402.000 AUD mn in Jun 2017 and a record low of 2,107.000 AUD mn in Jun 1978. Australia GVA: 2014-15p: Trend: Electricity, Gas, Water & Waste Services: Water Supply & Waste Services data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Australian Bureau of Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Australia – Table AU.A198: SNA08: Gross Value Added: by Industry: Chain Linked: 2014-15 Price: Trend.

ABS data showing Australian household consumption of distributed, self-extracted and reuse water (in gigalitres) from 2008-09 to 2013-14. For more information and up to data estimates, see http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/allprimarymainfeatures/EDD6DD693926BD37CA257AC2001DA500?opendocument

Data used to produce Figure BLT15 in Built environment, SoE 2016. Se https://soe.environment.gov.au/theme/built-environment/topic/2016/increased-consumption#built-environment-figure-BLT15

Water consumption in Australian households, by state and territory, 2008-09 to 2014-15. Data from Australian Bureau of Statistics - Water account, Australia, 2014–15, cat. no. 4610.0.\r \r Data used to produce Figure BLT12 in Built environment, SoE 2016. See https://soe.environment.gov.au/theme/built-environment/topic/2016/increased-consumption#built-environment-figure-BLT12

Graph and download economic data for Consumer Price Indices (CPIs, HICPs), COICOP 1999: Consumer Price Index: Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels for Australia (AUSCP040000IXOBQ) from Q3 1972 to Q4 2024 about water, fuels, Australia, electricity, gas, CPI, price index, indexes, and price.