Water accounts - supply and use — Losses in distribution by country
Water flow accounts describe flows of water, in physical units, encompassing the initial abstraction of water resources from the environment into the economy, to the water flows within the economy in the form of supply and use by industries and households, and finally, flows of water back to the environment....
What the numbers show
Water accounts - supply and use — Losses in distribution is currently reported for 18 countries. The highest value is 31,333 Cubic metres in Mexico; the lowest is 89.6 Cubic metres in Czechia.
The median across all reporting countries is 649.37 Cubic metres, and the mean is 3,123 Cubic metres.
The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 350.
Over the past decade 5 countries rose and 13 fell. The largest increase was in Saudi Arabia (up 22.6%), and the largest decrease in Ukraine (down 67.9%).
Water accounts - supply and use — Losses in distribution: full country ranking
| # | Country | Latest | Year | 10-year change | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mexico | 31,333 Cubic metres | 2023 | up 7.4% | rising |
| 2 | Russian Federation | 6,661 Cubic metres | 2021 | down 7.4% | falling |
| 3 | Spain | 5,468 Cubic metres | 2020 | down 33.8% | falling |
| 4 | Italy | 3,388 Cubic metres | 2022 | up 8.4% | rising |
| 5 | Azerbaijan | 3,034 Cubic metres | 2023 | down 29.1% | falling |
| 6 | Australia | 1,430 Cubic metres | 2011 | down 32.5% | falling |
| 7 | Costa Rica | 758.81 Cubic metres | 2023 | down 20.2% | falling |
| 8 | Georgia | 717 Cubic metres | 2021 | up 0.6% | rising |
| 9 | Armenia | 655.7 Cubic metres | 2023 | down 24.3% | rising |
| 10 | Bulgaria | 643.03 Cubic metres | 2023 | down 35.2% | falling |
| 11 | Ukraine | 597.25 Cubic metres | 2023 | down 67.9% | falling |
| 12 | Germany | 469.14 Cubic metres | 2022 | down 0.6% | flat |
| 13 | Saudi Arabia | 350 Cubic metres | 2017 | up 22.6% | rising |
| 14 | Belgium | 186.56 Cubic metres | 2022 | up 3.6% | falling |
| 15 | Sweden | 175 Cubic metres | 2020 | down 3.3% | flat |
| 16 | Belarus | 157 Cubic metres | 2023 | down 20.5% | falling |
| 17 | Switzerland | 109 Cubic metres | 2024 | down 11.4% | falling |
| 18 | Czechia | 89.6 Cubic metres | 2024 | down 6.7% | falling |
Regions and income groups
Aggregates are excluded from the country ranking above so that a region can never outrank a country.
About this data
Water flow accounts describe flows of water, in physical units, encompassing the initial abstraction of water resources from the environment into the economy, to the water flows within the economy in the form of supply and use by industries and households, and finally, flows of water back to the environment. Physical supply and use tables can be compiled at various levels of detail, depending on the required policy and analytical focus and data availability. A basic PSUT for water contains information on the supply and use of water and provides an overview of water flows. The PSUT is divided into five sections which organize information on (a) abstraction of water from the environment; (b) distribution and use of abstracted water across enterprises and households; (c) flows of wastewater and reused water (between households and enterprises); (d) return flows of water to the environment; and (e) evaporation, transpiration and water incorporated into products. Data source(s): Joint OECD/Eurostat questionnaire on Inland Waters. Data for non-OECD countries is sourced from UNSD (https://unstats.un.org/unsd/envstats/country_files) Contact: ENV.Stat@oecd.org Dataset release date: April 15, 2026 Database documentation