Random Facts About Water

Did you know that water is the most common substance on earth, but also the most underrated?

Water is more than just what comes through our kitchen taps. There are hundreds, if not thousands of interesting facts about water. Some are fun, some are more serious and some are just scientific fact.

Random Facts About Water

But we know you don’t have all day, so we have picked our top 30 random facts about water to show just how versatile water really is.

Did you know….

1. Only 1% of the earth’s water is suitable for drinking water. This is because 97% of the world’s water is undrinkable (too salty, or other factors) and the other 2% is locked in ice caps and glaciers.
2. 80% of the earth’s surface is water.
3. 30% of the world’s freshwater is in the ground and 68.7% is trapped in glaciers.
4. The UK has become the sixth largest net importer of water in the world, and only 38% of the UK’s total water use comes from its own resources.
5. There is about the same amount of water on Earth now as there was millions of years ago.
6. Water is constantly being recycled, so you could be drinking water from the dinosaur era as we speak!
7. Water weighs about 8 pounds a gallon.
8. 66% of the human body is water.
9. 70% of the human brain is water.
10. A person can live about a month without food, but only about a week without water.
11. Water expands by 9% when it freezes.
12. Children in the first 6 months of life consume seven times as much water per pound as the average adult.
13. It takes about 12 gallons per day to sustain a human (this figure takes into account all uses for water, like drinking, sanitation and food production.
14. About 6,800 gallons of water is required to grow a day’s food for a family of four.. To put this into perspective, 1 Gallon in the UK (imperial) is equivalent to 16 Cups (imperial).
15. To create one pint of beer it takes 20 gallons of water.
16. It takes 120 gallons of water for one egg.
17. 1 pound of chocolate requires 3,170 gallons of water.
18. A jellyfish and a cucumber are each 95% water.
19. It takes about 70 gallons of water to fill a bathtub.
20. 300 tons of water are required to manufacture 1 ton of steel.
21. 1 in 6 gallons of water leak from utility pipes before reaching customers in the US.
22. Refilling a half-litre reusable water bottle 1,740 times with tap water is the equivalent cost of a 99 cent water bottle at a supermarket
23. 780 million people lack access to an improved water source.
24. In just one day, 200 million work hours are consumed by women collecting water for their families.
25. 1/3 what the world spends on bottled water in one year could pay for projects providing water to everyone in need.
26. 80% of all illness in the developing world is water related.
27. Up to 50% of water is lost through leaks in cities in the developing world
28. In some countries, less than half the population has access to clean water.
29. 40 billion hours are spent collecting water in Africa.
30. 85% of the world population lives in the driest half of the planet.