Global Access to Clean Drinking Water is Increasing

Between 1990 and 2012, access to drinking water across the world improved as follows:

• Number of people with water piped on premises increased from 45% to 56%
• Number of people whose water supply was improved in other ways increased from 31% to 33%
• Number of people whose water supply did not improve dropped from 17% to 9%
• Number of people forced to rely on surface water dropped from 7% to 2%

Source: UNICEF Millennium Development Goal (MDG 7)