The JMP 2025 report will be launched on 26 August - come back to download the full report and access data online in a few days!
Between 2000 and 2024, the global population rose from 6.2 to 8.2 billion. Over this period, about a quarter of the population (2.2 billion) gained access to safely managed drinking water and a third (2.8 billion) to safely managed sanitation. Yet progress has been uneven and the number of people left behind has fallen more slowly. Since 2015, the distribution of the unserved has shifted: the proportion of the population with sanitation services has risen quickly in rural areas while staying relatively flat in urban areas. However, in terms of raw numbers most of the gains have been realized in urban areas. Basic hygiene access has improved, especially in rural areas; and the share of people unserved has increasingly concentrated in low-income countries.