The charts illustrate the world water use, as regards agricultural, domestic and industrial purposes and the water use in these fields in different countries in 2000.
Overall, it can be clearly seen from the data that agriculture was the main domain, in which a significant amount of water was used globally, while domestic and industrial global consumption remained comparatively low. This pattern was also seen in China and India, while in New Zealand and Canada the highest proportions of water were used for domestic and industrial purposes.
More specifically, in 2000 a considerable percentage of water was used worldwide for agriculture (70%), with this use being prominent in India (92%), and China (69%), in contrast to Canada, whose water usage for agriculture was insignificant (8%). New Zealanders used on average a little less than a half of water both for agriculture and for their households, while China’s, India’s and Canada’s water use for domestic purposes was negligible (9%, 5%, 12%, respectively). This was also true for the rest of the worlds, as domestic use accounted for 8% worldwide. Industrial water use showed significant differences among the different countries, with Canada being first (80%), followed by China (22%). However, the water which was used for industries in India and New Zealand was insignificant (3%, 10% respectively), while this figure made up to 22% worldwide.