mind & bodyanalysisOur World in Data

Fewer than 60% of people worldwide have access to safe sanitation

the gist

Safe sanitation means waste is separated from people, for example through toilets connected to sewers or properly managed septic systems. Less than 60 percent of the world's population has access to it. Unsafe sanitation spreads faecal matter into water and food, carrying diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid, and polio. The result is hundreds of thousands of deaths every year, mostly among young children in low-income countries.

so what

Sanitation is one of the most cost-effective public health tools, yet it is often overlooked compared with medicine. The gap shows where basic infrastructure still lags behind global progress.

Our World in Data · CC BY 4.0

Image: Our World in Data, CC BY 4.0