Data for 2021

Water Stress, 2021

Name: Water Stress, 2021
Creator: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
License: https://www.fao.org/contact-us/terms/db-terms-of-use/en/

2021, as FAO’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

Water Stress, 2021 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 2020, 79 values changed (40 up, 39 down), the same countries are covered.

Download CSV Cite this year

Share this page

Water Stress · Data for 2021

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
2021the year it describes
172distinct 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, 2021, 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, 2021: 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	1,516.67
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	152.50
8	Algeria`DZA`Northern Africa	140.59
9	Turkmenistan`TKM`Central Asia	135.21
10	Israel`ISR`Western Asia	132.00
11	Syria`SYR`Western Asia	124.36
12	Uzbekistan`UZB`Central Asia	121.88
13	Sudan`SDN`Northern Africa	118.66
14	Oman`OMN`Western Asia	116.71
15	Pakistan`PAK`Southern Asia	112.97
16	Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	112.93
17	Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	102.52
18	Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	93.31
19	Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	90.79
20	Barbados`BRB`Caribbean	87.50
21	South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	85.22
22	Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	80.48
23	Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	80.43
24	Eswatini`SWZ`Southern Africa	77.56
25	Tajikistan`TJK`Central Asia	69.94
26	South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	66.89
27	India`IND`Southern Asia	65.87
28	Armenia`ARM`Western Asia	59.85
29	Lebanon`LBN`Western Asia	58.79
30	Azerbaijan`AZE`Western Asia	57.27
31	Cabo Verde`CPV`Western Africa	57.18
32	Afghanistan`AFG`Southern Asia	54.76
33	Belgium`BEL`Western Europe	52.83
34	Kyrgyzstan`KGZ`Central Asia	49.72
35	Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	48.68
36	Zimbabwe`ZWE`Eastern Africa	46.09
37	Mexico`MEX`Central America	45.02
38	Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	43.38
39	Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	43.25
40	Mali`MLI`Western Africa	42.95
41	China`CHN`Eastern Asia	42.23
42	Dominican Republic`DOM`Caribbean	39.55
43	Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	38.55
44	North Macedonia`MKD`Southern Europe	37.93
45	Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	36.14
46	Kazakhstan`KAZ`Central Asia	33.78
47	Germany`DEU`Western Europe	32.86
48	Ethiopia`ETH`Eastern Africa	32.26
49	Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	32.12
50	Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	32.08
51	Saint Kitts and Nevis`KNA`Caribbean	31.96
52	Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	31.84
53	Madagascar`MDG`Eastern Africa	31.69
54	Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	29.74
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	27.21
60	Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	26.09
61	United States`USA`Northern America	24.54
62	Somalia`SOM`Eastern Africa	24.53
63	Morocco`MAR`Northern Africa	22.28
64	Cuba`CUB`Caribbean	22.17
65	Mauritius`MUS`Eastern Africa	21.96
66	France`FRA`Western Europe	21.76
67	Czechia`CZE`Eastern Europe	20.50
68	Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	20.41
69	Trinidad and Tobago`TTO`Caribbean	19.98
=70	Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	17.76
=70	Vietnam`VNM`South-eastern Asia	17.76
72	Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	16.28
73	Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	16.08
74	United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	14.35
75	Saint Lucia`LCA`Caribbean	14.30
76	Haiti`HTI`Caribbean	13.38
77	Mauritania`MRT`Western Africa	13.25
78	Tanzania`TZA`Eastern Africa	12.96
79	Moldova`MDA`Eastern Europe	12.41
80	Jamaica`JAM`Caribbean	12.38
81	Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	12.32
82	El Salvador`SLV`Central America	12.16
83	Andorra`AND`Southern Europe	11.95
84	Uruguay`URY`South America	11.82
85	Eritrea`ERI`Eastern Africa	11.18
86	Niger`NER`Western Africa	11.02
87	Ukraine`UKR`Eastern Europe	10.84
88	Estonia`EST`Northern Europe	10.82
89	Argentina`ARG`South America	10.46
90	Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	10.19
91	Dominica`DMA`Caribbean	10.00
92	Kenya`KEN`Eastern Africa	9.96
93	Maldives`MDV`Southern Asia	9.62
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	8.27
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	7.72
101	Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	7.61
102	Venezuela`VEN`South America	7.54
103	Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	7.36
104	Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	7.11
105	Grenada`GRD`Caribbean	7.05
106	Rwanda`RWA`Eastern Africa	6.55
107	Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	6.50
108	Djibouti`DJI`Eastern Africa	6.33
109	Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	6.29
110	Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	5.88
111	Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	5.83
112	Myanmar`MMR`South-eastern Asia	5.80
113	Guatemala`GTM`Central America	5.74
114	Bangladesh`BGD`Southern Asia	5.72
115	Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	5.44
116	Georgia`GEO`Western Asia	5.24
117	Côte d’Ivoire`CIV`Western Africa	5.09
118	Peru`PER`South America	4.83
119	Laos`LAO`South-eastern Asia	4.79
120	Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	4.78
121	Belarus`BLR`Eastern Europe	4.70
122	Honduras`HND`Central America	4.62
123	Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	4.45
124	Mongolia`MNG`Eastern Asia	4.37
125	Chad`TCD`Middle Africa	4.29
126	South Sudan`SSD`Eastern Africa	4.23
127	Malawi`MWI`Eastern Africa	4.09
128	Suriname`SUR`South America	3.95
129	Russia`RUS`Eastern Europe	3.86
130	Luxembourg`LUX`Western Europe	3.82
131	Canada`CAN`Northern America	3.72
132	Sweden`SWE`Northern Europe	3.58
133	Colombia`COL`South America	3.54
134	Brunei`BRN`South-eastern Asia	3.47
135	Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	3.44
136	Togo`TGO`Western Africa	3.39
137	Antigua and Barbuda`ATG`Caribbean	3.15
138	Lesotho`LSO`Southern Africa	2.57
139	Lithuania`LTU`Northern Europe	2.56
=140	Botswana`BWA`Southern Africa	2.44
=140	Slovakia`SVK`Eastern Europe	2.44
142	Nicaragua`NIC`Central America	2.22
143	Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	2.21
144	Bosnia and Herzegovina`BIH`Southern Europe	2.03
145	Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	2.01
146	São Tomé and Príncipe`STP`Middle Africa	1.88
147	Angola`AGO`Middle Africa	1.87
148	Paraguay`PRY`South America	1.84
149	Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	1.75
150	Cameroon`CMR`Middle Africa	1.56
151	Guinea-Bissau`GNB`Western Africa	1.50
=152	Brazil`BRA`South America	1.48
=152	Croatia`HRV`Southern Europe	1.48
154	Bhutan`BTN`Southern Asia	1.41
155	Guinea`GIN`Western Africa	1.37
156	Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	1.28
157	Ecuador`ECU`South America	1.24
158	Latvia`LVA`Northern Europe	1.09
159	Cambodia`KHM`South-eastern Asia	1.04
160	Benin`BEN`Western Africa	0.98
161	Panama`PAN`Central America	0.90
162	Comoros`COM`Eastern Africa	0.83
163	Fiji`FJI`Melanesia	0.56
=164	Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	0.50
=164	Sierra Leone`SLE`Western Africa	0.50
166	Ghana`GHA`Western Africa	0.40
167	Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	0.39
168	Central African Republic`CAF`Middle Africa	0.34
=169	Guyana`GUY`South America	0.31
=169	Namibia`NAM`Southern Africa	0.31
171	Liberia`LBR`Western Africa	0.26
172	DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	0.23
173	Bolivia`BOL`South America	0.20
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 2021

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

1Kuwait3,850.50
2United Arab Emirates1,516.67
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.

032020 → 2021

Since 2020

What changed between 2020 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

+0 / −0countries joined / left
79values changed, of 177 in both
40 · 39rose · fell
98unchanged

Rose most

Israel110.09 → 132.00+21.91
Azerbaijan53.89 → 57.27+3.38
North Macedonia34.85 → 37.93+3.08
Tunisia90.29 → 93.31+3.02
Armenia57.09 → 59.85+2.76

Fell most

United Arab Emirates1,587.33 → 1,516.67−70.66
Singapore56.65 → 31.84−24.81
Uzbekistan143.39 → 121.88−21.51
Cabo Verde68.94 → 57.18−11.76
Algeria149.56 → 140.59−8.97

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 2021.
172 distinct values among 177
Values are stored exactly as published, to 2 decimals. 2 countries share 17.76. 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-2021-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) (2021). Water Stress, 2021 [data set], describing 2021. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/water-stress/2021

0624 held

Other years

‹ The year before
Water Stress, 2020
177 countries
The year after ›
Water Stress, 2022
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