Iceland has the cleanest waters across Europe, having received an index score of 86.07 points in 2023. Other European countries with scores above 80 points that year were Finland and Slovenia. Outside of Europe, Canada held a score of 88.75 points, topping the list of the cleanest waters worldwide.

In 2022, an estimated 91 percent of the world population had access to at least basic drinking water services. Access was highest in Europe and North America and Australia and New Zealand, with approximately 100 percent of both regions having access to at least basic drinking water services.

Access to safe drinking water

Improved drinking water refers to a source that can be adequately protected from outside contamination, mostly by fecal matter. An improved sanitation facility keeps human waste out of reach, for example, by using a flush toilet or a septic tank. These protected sources include rainwater, protected springs, and piped water into a dwelling. Global investments in water supply infrastructure are expected to increase.

Global water inequality

In most regions of the world, 90 percent of the population has access to at least basic drinking water services. However, just 65 percent of the population in sub-Saharan Africa and 60 percent of the population in Oceania had basic access in 2022. In sub-Saharan Africa, about 16 percent of people had access to unimproved water sources and eight percent only had access to surface waters. Unimproved water sources include bottled water and tanker-trucks. Currently, eight out of ten people living in rural areas still lack even basic drinking water services. A lack of access to safe water is considered one of the top risks based on impact to global societies.

This dataset is published as Open DataThe Water Intended for Human Consumption (Private Supplies) (Scotland) Regulations 2017 came into force in October 2017, and are regulated and enforced by Local Authorities. See https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2017/282/schedule/1/madeThe main objective of the Regulations is to ensure the provision of clean, safe drinking water and to deliver significant health benefits to those using private water supplies.The DWQR has an independent role in verifying that the Regulations are complied with and also reports on compliance with the Regulations to the European Commission. Local Authorities are required to maintain a register of every private water supply to premises in its area."UPRN" and "address" are MANDATORY fields for both these layers in this dataset.The data has been processed automatically to try and find closest referenced address point, details of which are included along with the resulting search distance.