Global water crisis
Global freshwater withdrawals have grown about sixfold since 1900, faster than population. About 2.1 billion people still lack safely managed drinking water. Agriculture uses about 70% of all freshwater withdrawn.
| Fact | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Freshwater withdrawals per year | about 4,000 km³ | FAO AQUASTAT |
| Agriculture share of water use | about 70% | FAO AQUASTAT |
| People without safely managed drinking water | 2.1 billion | WHO/UNICEF JMP |
| People facing severe water scarcity at least one month a year | about 4 billion | Mekonnen and Hoekstra, Science Advances 2016 |
| Largest aquifers being depleted | 21 of 37 | NASA GRACE (Richey et al. 2015) |
| Water needed to produce 1 kg of beef | about 15,400 litres | Water Footprint Network |
| Virtual water in global food trade per year | about 2,300 km³ | Hoekstra and Mekonnen 2012 |
Plastic pollution facts
| Statistic | Value |
|---|---|
| Plastic produced in 2024 | 430.9 million tonnes |
| Plastic waste recycled | only about 9% |
| Incinerated | about 19% |
| Sent to landfill | about 50% |
| Mismanaged (dumped, burned in the open or leaked) | about 22% |
| Plastic produced since 1950 (to 2015) | 8.3 billion tonnes |
| Microplastic particles floating in the ocean | about 171 trillion |
| Plastic leaking into rivers, lakes and oceans a year | 6.1 million tonnes (1.7 Mt to the ocean) |
| Great Pacific Garbage Patch area | about 1.6 million km² |
| Time for a plastic bottle to break down | about 450 years (estimate) |
Sources: Plastics Europe, Plastics the Fast Facts 2025; OECD Global Plastics Outlook (2019 data for waste and leakage); Geyer et al., Science Advances 2017; Eriksen et al., PLOS ONE 2023; Lebreton et al., Scientific Reports 2018; NOAA.
Deforestation: the scale
The world cleared about 10.9 million hectares of forest a year between 2015 and 2025, according to the FAO. Forests also expand, through planting and natural regrowth, by about 6.78 million hectares a year, so the net loss is about 4.12 million hectares a year, down from 10.7 million in the 1990s. Most clearing happens in the tropics, for cattle, soy, palm oil and small-scale farming.
| Measure (2015 to 2025) | Per year | Per day |
|---|---|---|
| Deforestation | 10.9 M ha | 29,863 ha |
| Forest expansion | 6.78 M ha | 18,575 ha |
| Net forest loss | 4.12 M ha | 11,288 ha |
| Net loss in the 1990s, for comparison | 10.7 M ha | 29,315 ha |
| World forest area (2025) | 4.14 billion ha | about 32% of land |
Source: FAO Global Forest Resources Assessment 2025. Tree counts: Crowther et al., Mapping tree density at a global scale, Nature 2015.
Food waste
Households, shops and restaurants threw away 1.05 billion tonnes of food in 2022, about a fifth of the food available to consumers, according to UNEP. Another 13% is lost between harvest and the shop. Food loss and waste cause 8 to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
| Where food is wasted | Per year | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Households | 631 million t | 60% |
| Food service (restaurants, canteens) | 290 million t | 28% |
| Retail | 131 million t | 12% |
| Lost after harvest, before retail | about 13% of food | FAO |
| Wasted food per person at home | 79 kg | UNEP |
| Greenhouse gases from food loss and waste | 8 to 10% of global | UNEP |
Source: UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024; FAO food loss data.
How the counters work
Every counter takes the latest yearly total from the source named under it, divides by the seconds in a year and multiplies by the seconds since midnight UTC. The page is rendered with the value at the moment you load it; your browser then keeps it moving. The totals are estimates with real uncertainty, especially for tree counts, ocean plastic and land degradation, so read them as orders of magnitude.
Plastic recycled today applies the OECD's 9% recycling rate (2019 data) to 2024 production, so it is an estimate. Land degradation uses the UNCCD figure for 2015 to 2019.