Data
Share of the rural population using at least basic sanitation facilities
What you should know about this indicator
- Having access to safe and comfortable sanitation facilities is essential to a healthy and dignified life. Improved sanitation facilities help prevent the spread of diseases such as cholera, dysentery, and typhoid by providing safe separation from human waste.
- Improved sanitation facilities are those designed to hygienically separate excreta from human contact, and include: flush/pour flush toilets connected to piped sewer systems, septic tanks or pit latrines; pit latrines with slabs (including ventilated pit latrines), and composting toilets.
- Basic sanitation services are defined as improved sanitation facilities that are not shared with other households.
- Safely managed sanitation services are defined as improved sanitation facilities that are not shared with other households and where excreta are safely disposed in situ or transported and treated off-site.
- This data is provided by the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (JMP). They compile data from nationally representative household surveys and censuses, administrative data and service provider data. To learn more, see the JMP Methodology.
- This data reflects actual service use, which is directly linked to health outcomes and can be consistently measured across countries using household surveys. It is possible to theoretically have access to some kind of water and sanitation infrastructure, but not use them for daily needs. Therefore we refer to "use" or "using" rather than "access" to better reflect the underlying data.
Share of the rural population using at least basic sanitation facilities
Proportion of people using improved sanitation facilities, such as toilets or latrines, that are not shared with other households.
Source
WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (2025) – processed by Our World in Data
Last updated
December 8, 2025
Next expected update
December 2027
Date range
2000–2024
Unit
%
Explore charts that include this data
What you should know about this indicator
- Having access to safe and comfortable sanitation facilities is essential to a healthy and dignified life. Improved sanitation facilities help prevent the spread of diseases such as cholera, dysentery, and typhoid by providing safe separation from human waste.
- Improved sanitation facilities are those designed to hygienically separate excreta from human contact, and include: flush/pour flush toilets connected to piped sewer systems, septic tanks or pit latrines; pit latrines with slabs (including ventilated pit latrines), and composting toilets.
- Basic sanitation services are defined as improved sanitation facilities that are not shared with other households.
- Safely managed sanitation services are defined as improved sanitation facilities that are not shared with other households and where excreta are safely disposed in situ or transported and treated off-site.
- This data is provided by the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (JMP). They compile data from nationally representative household surveys and censuses, administrative data and service provider data. To learn more, see the JMP Methodology.
- This data reflects actual service use, which is directly linked to health outcomes and can be consistently measured across countries using household surveys. It is possible to theoretically have access to some kind of water and sanitation infrastructure, but not use them for daily needs. Therefore we refer to "use" or "using" rather than "access" to better reflect the underlying data.
Share of the rural population using at least basic sanitation facilities
Proportion of people using improved sanitation facilities, such as toilets or latrines, that are not shared with other households.
Source
WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (2025) – processed by Our World in Data
Last updated
December 8, 2025
Next expected update
December 2027
Date range
2000–2024
Unit
%
Sources and processing
This data is based on the following sources
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Citations
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To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:
“Data Page: Share of the rural population using at least basic sanitation facilities”, part of the following publication: Hannah Ritchie, Fiona Spooner, and Max Roser (2021) - “Clean Water and Sanitation”. Data adapted from World Health Organization/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260109-172523/grapher/share-of-rural-population-with-improved-sanitation-faciltities.html [online resource] (archived on January 9, 2026).How to cite this data
In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:
WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (2025) – processed by Our World in DataFull citation
WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (2025) – processed by Our World in Data. “Share of the rural population using at least basic sanitation facilities” [dataset]. World Health Organization/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene, “WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (JMP) 2000-2024 report” [original data]. Retrieved January 9, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260109-172523/grapher/share-of-rural-population-with-improved-sanitation-faciltities.html (archived on January 9, 2026).