1 in 3 people or 2.2 billion people around the world lack safe drinking water In 2017, 71 per cent of the global population used safely managed drinking water services. National estimates were available for 117 countries and four out of eight SDG regions, representing 38 per cent of the global population. Coverage was lower in rural areas (53 per cent) than in urban areas (85 per cent), which were home to two out of three of the 5.3 billion people using safely managed services. By 2017 a total of 80 countries had achieved greater than 99 per cent coverage and were therefore classified as having “nearly universal” coverage of at least drinking water services