Handwashing facilities — all countries

Handwashing facilities — South Africa

Handwashing facilities in South Africa in 2020 — 44.4%. Ranked 69 in the world out of 109. Since 2012, the indicator has risen by 1 pp.

2020 44.4% +0.1 pp vs 2019
World rank 69of 109
Period maximum 44.4%2020
Period minimum 43.3%2012

Trend over time

2012–2020 · % of population

Handwashing facilities — South Africa, 2012–20204343.54444.52012201320142015201620172018201920202012: 43.3%2013: 43.5%2014: 43.6%2015: 43.7%2016: 43.9%2017: 44%2018: 44.1%2019: 44.2%2020: 44.4%
Change over the period: +1 pp Annual average: 0.13 pp

Comparison, 2020

How the value compares with the world and the groups this territory belongs to: South Africa

South Africa 44.4%
World 72.5%
Southern Africa computed 43.1%
Handwashing facilities — South Africa, by year South Africa All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2020 44.4 +0.1 pp
2019 44.2 +0.1 pp
2018 44.1 +0.1 pp
2017 44 +0.1 pp
2016 43.9 +0.1 pp
2015 43.7 +0.1 pp
2014 43.6 +0.1 pp
2013 43.5 +0.1 pp
2012 43.3

Southern Africa, 2020

The same indicator for neighboring countries — with links to their pages

About the indicator

The share of the population that has an equipped place for washing hands with water and soap in the dwelling. The indicator looks a small one next to piped water and sewerage, but in its contribution to reducing diarrheal and respiratory disease it is comparable to them, and it costs incomparably less. The COVID-19 pandemic made it visible: it turned out that in the poorest countries of Africa fewer than a quarter of the population have facilities for washing hands.

Important: Not all countries are surveyed: where practically everyone has such facilities, these data are not collected. That is why the aggregate by country group is computed only where coverage is sufficient — averaging the surveyed countries alone would give a picture noticeably worse than the reality.

Source: Global Health Observatory (WHO), license CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.