Data for 2020

Water Stress, 2020

Name: Water Stress, 2020
Creator: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
License: https://www.fao.org/contact-us/terms/db-terms-of-use/en/

2020, as FAO’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

Water Stress, 2020 covers 177 countries. Kuwait is highest, at 3,850.50; Republic of the Congo is lowest, at 0.03. The middle country reads 10.46. Against 2019, 83 values changed (42 up, 41 down), the same countries are covered.

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Water Stress · Data for 2020

HighestKuwait

3,850.50

LowestRepublic of the Congo

0.03

Shaded by value in five groups of equal size, darkest at the lowest end.

177countries
1measure
2020the year it describes
176distinct values2 decimals, as published
Sep 12, 2026read from the publisher
CC BY 4.0licence

01Position · derived

The table

Every country and every column of Water Stress, 2020, as published. FAO ranks nobody on this measure; the position is derived here by ordering the published values. “=” marks a shared position.

Search this table

Showing 25 of 177 countries · select a heading to sort

Water Stress, 2020: every country, as published by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
derived
1	Kuwait`KWT`Western Asia	3,850.50
2	United Arab Emirates`ARE`Western Asia	1,587.33
3	Saudi Arabia`SAU`Western Asia	974.17
4	Libya`LBY`Northern Africa	817.14
5	Qatar`QAT`Western Asia	431.03
6	Yemen`YEM`Western Asia	281.48
7	Bahrain`BHR`Western Asia	155.00
8	Algeria`DZA`Northern Africa	149.56
9	Uzbekistan`UZB`Central Asia	143.39
10	Turkmenistan`TKM`Central Asia	135.21
11	Syria`SYR`Western Asia	124.36
12	Sudan`SDN`Northern Africa	118.66
13	Oman`OMN`Western Asia	116.71
14	Pakistan`PAK`Southern Asia	116.31
15	Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	112.93
16	Israel`ISR`Western Asia	110.09
17	Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	106.05
18	Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	90.79
19	Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	90.29
20	Barbados`BRB`Caribbean	87.50
21	South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	85.22
22	Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	83.62
23	Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	80.43
24	Eswatini`SWZ`Southern Africa	77.56
25	Tajikistan`TJK`Central Asia	69.94
26	Cabo Verde`CPV`Western Africa	68.94
27	India`IND`Southern Asia	65.87
28	South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	65.03
29	Lebanon`LBN`Western Asia	58.79
30	Armenia`ARM`Western Asia	57.09
31	Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	56.65
32	Afghanistan`AFG`Southern Asia	54.76
33	Azerbaijan`AZE`Western Asia	53.89
34	Belgium`BEL`Western Europe	52.17
35	Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	50.74
36	Kyrgyzstan`KGZ`Central Asia	49.72
37	Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	46.13
38	Zimbabwe`ZWE`Eastern Africa	46.09
39	Mexico`MEX`Central America	44.82
40	Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	43.25
41	Mali`MLI`Western Africa	42.95
42	China`CHN`Eastern Asia	41.52
43	Dominican Republic`DOM`Caribbean	39.55
44	Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	36.73
45	Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	36.64
46	Germany`DEU`Western Europe	35.83
47	North Macedonia`MKD`Southern Europe	34.85
48	Kazakhstan`KAZ`Central Asia	34.10
49	Ethiopia`ETH`Eastern Africa	32.26
50	Saint Kitts and Nevis`KNA`Caribbean	31.96
51	Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	31.57
52	Madagascar`MDG`Eastern Africa	30.42
53	Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	30.00
54	Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	29.80
55	Nigeria`NGA`Western Africa	29.71
56	Indonesia`IDN`South-eastern Asia	29.70
57	Timor-Leste`TLS`South-eastern Asia	28.27
58	North Korea`PRK`Eastern Asia	27.74
59	Philippines`PHL`South-eastern Asia	26.74
60	Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	25.62
61	United States`USA`Northern America	24.54
62	Somalia`SOM`Eastern Africa	24.53
63	Morocco`MAR`Northern Africa	23.71
64	Cuba`CUB`Caribbean	22.94
65	Mauritius`MUS`Eastern Africa	22.06
66	France`FRA`Western Europe	21.60
67	Czechia`CZE`Eastern Europe	20.77
68	Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	20.48
69	Trinidad and Tobago`TTO`Caribbean	20.09
70	Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	18.87
71	Vietnam`VNM`South-eastern Asia	17.76
72	Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	16.80
73	Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	16.28
74	Kenya`KEN`Eastern Africa	14.61
75	United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	14.35
76	Saint Lucia`LCA`Caribbean	14.30
77	Haiti`HTI`Caribbean	13.38
78	Mauritania`MRT`Western Africa	13.25
79	Tanzania`TZA`Eastern Africa	12.96
80	Moldova`MDA`Eastern Europe	12.56
81	Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	12.32
82	Ukraine`UKR`Eastern Europe	12.26
83	El Salvador`SLV`Central America	12.22
84	Andorra`AND`Southern Europe	11.79
85	Uruguay`URY`South America	11.63
86	Eritrea`ERI`Eastern Africa	11.18
87	Jamaica`JAM`Caribbean	11.05
88	Niger`NER`Western Africa	11.02
89	Argentina`ARG`South America	10.46
90	Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	10.19
91	Dominica`DMA`Caribbean	10.00
92	Maldives`MDV`Southern Asia	9.62
93	Estonia`EST`Northern Europe	9.23
94	Chile`CHL`South America	8.98
95	Austria`AUT`Western Europe	8.68
96	Nepal`NPL`Southern Asia	8.31
97	Zambia`ZMB`Eastern Africa	8.25
98	New Zealand`NZL`Australia and New Zealand	8.05
99	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines`VCT`Caribbean	7.90
100	Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	7.74
101	Venezuela`VEN`South America	7.54
102	Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	7.43
103	Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	7.11
104	Grenada`GRD`Caribbean	7.05
105	Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	6.92
106	Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	6.78
107	Rwanda`RWA`Eastern Africa	6.55
108	Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	6.50
109	Djibouti`DJI`Eastern Africa	6.33
110	Ghana`GHA`Western Africa	6.31
111	Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	5.83
112	Myanmar`MMR`South-eastern Asia	5.80
113	Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	5.75
114	Guatemala`GTM`Central America	5.74
115	Bangladesh`BGD`Southern Asia	5.72
116	Georgia`GEO`Western Asia	5.39
117	Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	5.35
118	Côte d’Ivoire`CIV`Western Africa	5.09
119	Laos`LAO`South-eastern Asia	4.79
120	Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	4.72
121	Honduras`HND`Central America	4.62
122	Peru`PER`South America	4.58
123	Belarus`BLR`Eastern Europe	4.38
124	Mongolia`MNG`Eastern Asia	4.34
125	Chad`TCD`Middle Africa	4.29
126	South Sudan`SSD`Eastern Africa	4.23
127	Malawi`MWI`Eastern Africa	4.08
128	Luxembourg`LUX`Western Europe	3.96
129	Suriname`SUR`South America	3.95
130	Canada`CAN`Northern America	3.73
131	Russia`RUS`Eastern Europe	3.62
132	Sweden`SWE`Northern Europe	3.58
133	Brunei`BRN`South-eastern Asia	3.47
134	Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	3.44
135	Colombia`COL`South America	3.41
136	Togo`TGO`Western Africa	3.39
137	Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	3.37
138	Lithuania`LTU`Northern Europe	2.89
139	Antigua and Barbuda`ATG`Caribbean	2.83
140	Lesotho`LSO`Southern Africa	2.57
141	Slovakia`SVK`Eastern Europe	2.39
142	Botswana`BWA`Southern Africa	2.31
143	Nicaragua`NIC`Central America	2.22
144	Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	2.21
145	Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	2.04
146	Bosnia and Herzegovina`BIH`Southern Europe	2.00
147	São Tomé and Príncipe`STP`Middle Africa	1.88
148	Angola`AGO`Middle Africa	1.87
149	Paraguay`PRY`South America	1.84
150	Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	1.75
151	Cameroon`CMR`Middle Africa	1.56
152	Guinea-Bissau`GNB`Western Africa	1.50
153	Brazil`BRA`South America	1.48
154	Croatia`HRV`Southern Europe	1.46
155	Bhutan`BTN`Southern Asia	1.41
156	Guinea`GIN`Western Africa	1.37
157	Ecuador`ECU`South America	1.22
158	Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	1.20
159	Latvia`LVA`Northern Europe	1.07
160	Cambodia`KHM`South-eastern Asia	1.04
161	Benin`BEN`Western Africa	0.98
162	Panama`PAN`Central America	0.90
163	Comoros`COM`Eastern Africa	0.83
164	Fiji`FJI`Melanesia	0.57
=165	Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	0.50
=165	Sierra Leone`SLE`Western Africa	0.50
167	Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	0.39
168	Namibia`NAM`Southern Africa	0.36
169	Central African Republic`CAF`Middle Africa	0.34
170	Guyana`GUY`South America	0.31
171	Liberia`LBR`Western Africa	0.26
172	DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	0.23
173	Bolivia`BOL`South America	0.21
174	Equatorial Guinea`GNQ`Middle Africa	0.18
175	Papua New Guinea`PNG`Melanesia	0.13
176	Belize`BLZ`Central America	0.12
177	Republic of the Congo`COG`Middle Africa	0.03

02In 2020

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

1Kuwait3,850.50
2United Arab Emirates1,587.33
3Saudi Arabia974.17
4Libya817.14
5Qatar431.03

Lowest

A higher value is the worse result. The middle country reads 10.46. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

032019 → 2020

Since 2019

What changed between 2019 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

+0 / −0countries joined / left
83values changed, of 177 in both
42 · 41rose · fell
94unchanged

Rose most

Cabo Verde48.96 → 68.94+19.98
Israel100.42 → 110.09+9.67
Pakistan108.65 → 116.31+7.66
Zimbabwe39.77 → 46.09+6.32
Cyprus27.61 → 31.57+3.96

Fell most

United Arab Emirates1,628.67 → 1,587.33−41.34
Iraq93.90 → 83.62−10.28
Uzbekistan151.84 → 143.39−8.45
Turkmenistan142.75 → 135.21−7.54
Kenya19.27 → 14.61−4.66

Both years come from the same release, so a difference here is a change in the data, not a revision of it. Every country’s full history is charted on the statistic page.

04Caveats

Read before you use

What this edition’s numbers are and are not, worked out from the file itself.

How values are stored

One year of the 2026 release
Every year in this series comes from FAO’s 2026 release, recalculated on one method. It can differ from what was first published for 2020.
176 distinct values among 177
Values are stored exactly as published, to 2 decimals. 2 countries share 0.50. Countries sharing a value share a position too.
The position is ours
FAO publishes values only; the order is this site’s.
Nothing missing
Every one of the 177 countries has every column.

05The files

Download and cite

The table as a file, digit for digit, what this site changed, and a citation for this edition.

Licence in full

.csv
For a spreadsheet or code
177 rows · 4.7 KB · UTF-8, opens in Excel
Opens with 11 lines of source notes; the table starts on row 13.
Download water-stress-2020-nations-inquiry.csv
↗
The publisher’s original
FAO’s own file, on its own site.
SDG_BulkDownloads_E_All_Data_(Normalized).zip

What this site changed: Reshaped into one row per country: regional and income-group totals are left out, only the columns listed are kept, each row gets its ISO 3166 code, and some country names are brought to one spelling. No value is recalculated, rescaled or rounded.

Licence: CC BY 4.0 · what it allows, in plain words

Cite this edition

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) (2020). Water Stress, 2020 [data set], describing 2020. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/water-stress/2020

0624 held

Other years

‹ The year before
Water Stress, 2019
177 countries
The year after ›
Water Stress, 2021
177 countries
All of them
Water Stress: every year
24 held, with the data dictionary, coverage and licence.
How it has moved, charted by country

07Questions