The pie charts illustrate the variation of purposes for which the proportion of water is used in six areas of the world.
Overall, it is clear that agricultural usage was the largest proportion of consumed water in all areas, except North America and Europe, where the greatest rate of consumed water was for industrial use.
People from Europe and North America used the largest proportion of water for industrial use, which represented 53% and 48% of the total consumption, respectively. For the other areas, this figure was dramatically lower, hovering around 10%. Agricultural use in both Europe and North America was in the bracket of 30% to 40%, which were almost half the figures for the rest of the areas.
The smallest percentage of used water in South Asia and Central Asia was for domestic use at 7%, for both areas. Similarly, the figure for this category was 9% in Africa and 13% North America. Domestic use is also the smallest rate of used water in Europe at 15%, but the amount of water used in South America is slightly higher at 19%.
