Drinking water services in Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea: Drinking water services was 945,195 people in 2024. ▼ Falling

Latest (2024)
945,195 people
Change on year
down 18.6%
World rank
28th
of 231 countries
All-time high
3.41 million people
in 2004
All-time low
945,195 people
in 2024
Years of data
25
2000–2024

Drinking water services in Papua New Guinea, 2000–2024

1.0M1.5M2.0M2.5M3.0M3.5M2000201220242000: 3.0M people2001: 3.1M people2002: 3.2M people2003: 3.3M people2004: 3.4M people2005: 3.4M people2006: 3.3M people2007: 3.3M people2008: 3.2M people2009: 3.2M people2010: 3.1M people2011: 3.0M people2012: 2.9M people2013: 2.8M people2014: 2.7M people2015: 2.6M people2016: 2.4M people2017: 2.3M people2018: 2.1M people2019: 1.9M people2020: 1.8M people2021: 1.6M people2022: 1.4M people2023: 1.2M people2024: 945.2k people

Source: WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (2025) – processed by Our World in Data. Measured in people.

Analysis

Papua New Guinea recorded 945,195 people for drinking water services in 2024. That is the lowest value across all 25 years on record.

Compared with earlier readings it is down 18.6% on the previous year and down 64.8% over ten years.

Over the whole period, drinking water services in Papua New Guinea peaked at 3.41 million people in 2004 and was at its lowest, 945,195 people, in 2024.

That places Papua New Guinea 28th out of 231 countries with data for 2024, putting it in the top quarter.

The long-run direction has been consistently falling across the 25 years of available data.

Averages by decade

DecadeAverage LowestHighest Years
2000s 3.23 million people 2.98 million people 3.41 million people 10
2010s 2.58 million people 1.94 million people 3.09 million people 10
2020s 1.36 million people 945,195 people 1.76 million people 5

Countries ranked near Papua New Guinea

  1. 25 Russia 1.12 million people compare
  2. 26 Cambodia 1.02 million people compare
  3. 27 Rwanda 1.01 million people compare
  4. 29 Cote d'Ivoire 943,025 people compare
  5. 30 Guinea 889,018 people compare
  6. 31 Algeria 845,976 people compare

See the full ranking of 231 places →

More environment data for Papua New Guinea

All data for Papua New Guinea →

Frequently asked questions

What is drinking water services in Papua New Guinea?
Drinking water services in Papua New Guinea was 945,195 people in 2024, according to WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (2025) – processed by Our World in Data.
What is the highest drinking water services recorded in Papua New Guinea?
The highest recorded value was 3.41 million people in 2004.
What is the lowest drinking water services recorded in Papua New Guinea?
The lowest recorded value was 945,195 people in 2024.
How does Papua New Guinea rank for drinking water services?
Papua New Guinea ranks 28th out of 231 countries with data for 2024.
Is drinking water services rising or falling in Papua New Guinea?
Over the last ten years it is down 64.8%. The long-run trend across the full record is falling.
Where does this Papua New Guinea data come from?
The figures come from WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (2025) – processed by Our World in Data, published as part of Drinking water services. Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.

Download this data

CSV · JSON — 25 observations, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data).

About this data

Indicator
Drinking water services
Unit
people
Source
WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (2025) – processed by Our World in Data
Licence
CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage
231 places, 5,429 data points, 2000–2024
Last refreshed

Number of people using drinking water directly collected from surface waters.