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Water exploitation index

Abstraction as % of the annual volume of renewable freshwater resources

EEnlightUpdated: Nov 11, 2025

About this metric

The water exploitation index is freshwater abstraction as a percentage of the annual volume of renewable freshwater resources. The chart shows it for each year from 2000 to 2024.

In 2024 the index was 37.7%, after 46.7% in 2023 and 77.3% in 2022, the highest value in the period shown. The lowest was 21.9% in 2002.

The index changes sharply from year to year. It was 50% or more in 10 of the 25 years: 2000, 2001, 2008, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2022.