Progress on Change in Water-Use Efficiency – 2024 Update

Target 6.4 is: “By 2030, substantially increase water-use efficiency across all sectors and ensure sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address water scarcity and substantially reduce the number of people suffering from water scarcity.”

Indicator 6.4.1 tracks the change in water-use efficiency over time, measured as the ratio of dollar value added to the volume of water used. It considers water use by all economic activities, with a focus on agriculture, industry and the service sector. Increasing water-use efficiency over time means decoupling a country’s economic growth from its water use; in other words, the economy can continue to grow without needing more water.

This report presents the global status on water-use efficiency and acceleration needs to achieve target 6.4 by 2030, based on the latest data on indicator 6.4.1.

Water-use efficiency rose from 17.4 USD/m3 in 2015 to 20.8 USD/m3 in 2021 worldwide, representing a 19.3 percent efficiency increase. Globally, less water is needed to generate economic output than back in 2015, however, no region is definitively on the trajectory to fully decouple economic growth from water use in recent years. Regional differences remain, both in absolute terms as well as in trends over time. While North America and Europe and Oceania still present the highest values, above 50 USD/m3, the stronger increase in water-use efficiency is reported in Eastern Asia and South-eastern Asia with about 44 percent increase in the period 2015-2021.

Water-use efficiency has increased in all economic sectors. In particular, agriculture water-use efficiency has grown by about 40 percent since 2015. The increase of water-use efficiency can be driven by an increase in the sectoral gross value added (GVA) and/or a reduction in sectoral water use across regions and their respective countries. Enhancing water-use efficiency over time may entail decoupling economic growth from water use across the main economic sectors, namely agriculture, industry, and services. No region is definitively on the trajectory to fully decouple economic growth from water use in recent years, anyway certain sub-regions have made notable strides.

Explore the latest data on indicator 6.4.1, by country, region and for the whole world.

Full Report

Progress Report on Change in Water-Use Efficiency, English

Visual Summary

Visual Summary: Progress on Change in Water-Use Efficiency, English

Visual Summary: Progress on Change in Water-Use Efficiency, French

Visual Summary: Progress on Change in Water-Use Efficiency, Spanish