The Ledger · Entry 27
Open defecation has become rare
Share of the world's population practicing open defecation
Data: Our World in Data, based on the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP)
Open defecation, relieving oneself in fields, ditches or open water for want of a toilet, spreads the diseases that kill children: cholera, typhoid, and the diarrhoea that dehydrates the very young. In 2000 more than one in five people worldwide still had no choice but to do it.
The key rows
By 2024 that was down to fewer than one in twenty, as toilets, sewers and sanitation campaigns reached billions more people. The practice has not vanished, and where it persists it tends to cluster among the poorest and most rural, but it has gone from common to rare in a single generation.
Asked often
How common is open defecation now?
In 2024 about 4.3% of the world practiced open defecation, down from 21.1% in 2000. It has gone from common to rare in a generation.
Why does ending open defecation save lives?
It cuts off a major route by which faecal bacteria reach drinking water and food, reducing cholera, typhoid and the diarrhoea that kills young children.
The world also got better today.
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