FUN FACTS ABOUT WATER

• The daily recommended amount of water is eight cups (64 oz.) per day.
• A person can live several weeks without food, but just a few days without water. Like air, water is essential to life.
• At birth, water accounts for approximately 80 percent of an infant’s body weight.
• Water makes up between 55-78% of a human’s body weight.
• A healthy person can drink about three gallons (48 cups) of water per day.
• 75% of all Americans are chronically dehydrated.

• Only 3% of Earth’s water is fresh water.  97% of the water on Earth is salt water.

• The water found at the Earth’s surface in lakes, rivers, streams, ponds, and swamps makes up only 0.3% of the world’s fresh water.

• 68.7% of the fresh water on Earth is trapped in glaciers.

• 30% of fresh water is in the ground.

• 1.7% of the world’s water is frozen and therefore unusable.

• Water covers 70.9% of the Earth’s surface.

• Water can dissolve more substances than any other liquid including sulfuric acid.

• A ten meter rise in sea levels due to melting glaciers would flood 25% of the population of the United States. 

• There is more fresh water in the atmosphere than in all of the rivers on the planet combined.

• If all of the water vapor in the Earth’s atmosphere fell at once, distributed evenly, it would only cover the earth with about an inch of water. 

• Water boils quicker in Denver, Colorado than in New York City. 

• Approximately 400 billion gallons of water are used in the United States per day. 

• Nearly one-half of the water used by Americans is used for thermoelectric power generation.

• In one year, the average American residence uses over 100,000 gallons (indoors and outside).

• It takes six and a half years for the average American residence to use the amount of water required to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool (660,000 gallons).

• It takes seven and a half years for the average American residence to use the same amount of water that flows over the Niagara Falls in one second (750,000 gallons).

• American residents use about 100 gallons of water per day.

• Americans use more water each day by flushing the toilet than they do by showering or any other activity.[ii]

• At 50 gallons per day, residential Europeans use about half of the water that residential Americans use.[iv]

• Residents of sub-Saharan Africa use only 2-5 gallons of water per day.[v]  

• The average faucet flows at a rate of 2 gallons per minute.  You can save up to four gallons of water every morning by turning off the faucet while you brush your teeth. 

• Taking a bath requires up to 70 gallons of water.  A five-minute shower uses only 10 to 25 gallons.

• A running toilet can waste up to 200 gallons of water per day.

• The New York City water supply system leaks 36 million gallons per day.[vi]

• There are approximately one million miles of water pipeline and aqueducts in the United States and Canada, enough to circle Earth 40 times.[viii]

• The first water pipes in the US were made from wood (bored logs that were charred with fire).

• The first municipal water filtration works opened in Paisley, Scotland in 1832

• A gallon of water weighs 8.34 pounds.

• A cubic foot of water weighs 62.4 pounds

• An inch of water covering one acre (27,154 gallons) weighs 113 tons.

• Water vaporizes at 212 degrees F, 100 degrees C.

• It takes more water to manufacture a new car (39,090 gallons) than to fill an above ground swimming pool.

• It takes more than ten gallons of water to produce one slice of bread.[ix] 

• Over 713 gallons of water go into the production of one cotton T-shirt.[x] 

• 1000 gallons of water are required to produce 1 gallon of milk.[xi] 

• Roughly 634 gallons of water go into the production of one hamburger.[xii]

• Water is the only substance found on earth naturally in three forms: solid, liquid and gas.

• At 1 drip per second, a faucet can leak 3,000 gallons per year.