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Water Fluoridation by Country 2024
The data concerning locations adding fluoride to public water is unfortunately from 2012. However, it is the most recent data publicly available. Experts estimate that the number of people drinking fluoridated water has risen about 5% since the data was gathered over a decade ago.
194.2 million people in the United States drink fluoridated water, making it the country with the largest population to do so. It is over 100 million more people than in Brazil, which has 27.2 million people who drink fluoridated water. However, these numbers only account for 64% of the total US population and 41% of the total Brazilian population.
Four other countries have populations of more than 10 million people drinking fluoridated water: 20.7 million people in Malaysia, 17.6 million people in Australia, 14.3 million people in Canada, and 11.8 million people in Chile. This accounts for 44% of Canada's total population and over 70% of the total population of Malaysia, Australia, and Chile.
The country with the fewest people drinking fluoridated water is Guyana. However, those 45 thousand people make up 62% of the country's total population. This is interesting when compared to Papua New Guinea, which has only 6% of its population drinking fluoridated water. Even with that small percentage, Papua New Guinea has 102 thousand people drinking fluoridated water, more than double the group in Guyana. One other country has 6% of their population drinking fluoridated water, but for South Korea, a much more populous country, the total number of people is 2.8 million.
The three countries with the smallest percentage of total population drinking fluoridated water are Vietnam, Serbia, and Peru. Water with fluoride is drank by 4% of the population, or 3.5 million people, in Vietnam, 3% of the population, or 300 thousand people, in Serbia, and 2% of the population, or 500 thousand people in Peru.
Similarly, not all countries with a high percentage of the total population drinking fluoridated water have similarly high numbers of people in that population. Hong Kong and Singapore both have 100% of their population drinking fluoridated water and large populations of 7 million and 5.1 million respectively. However, Brunei has 95% of its population drinking water with fluoride, but this is only 275 thousand people.
- Data year 2012 for most countries. Totals have been updated based upon fresh data for Brazil (2017) and the United States (2018).
- As of 2023, the British Fluoridation Society has not undertaken a full audit of its 2012/13 data, but estimates that the global number of individuals drinking fluorinated water has risen to more than 400 million, an increase of roughly 5% since 2012/13.
- Perhaps surprisingly, data from the World Health Organization indicates that adding fluoride to drinking water has no measured impact upon rates of tooth decay.
Country | Pct of Population Supplied w/ Fluoridated Water (%) | Population Supplied w/ Artificially Fluoridated Water | Population Supplied w/ Naturally Fluoridated Water | Total Population Supplied w/ Fluoridated Water |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hong Kong | 100% | 6,968,000 | ||
| Singapore | 100% | 5,080,000 | ||
| Brunei | 95% | 375,000 | ||
| Gabon | 86% | 1,261,000 | ||
| Australia | 80% | 17,600,000 | 144,000 | 17,744,000 |
| Malaysia | 75.5% | 20,700,000 | ||
| United States | 73% | 197,322,000 | 10,078,000 | 207,400,000 |
| Ireland | 73% | 3,250,000 | 200,000 | 3,450,000 |
| Chile | 70% | 11,000,000 | 800,000 | 11,800,000 |
| Israel | 70% | 5,272,000 | 150,000 | 5,422,000 |
| New Zealand | 61% | 2,330,000 | ||
| Kiribati | 51% | 50,000 | ||
| Canada | 44% | 14,260,000 | 300,000 | 14,560,000 |
| Fiji | 36% | 300,000 | ||
| Guyana | 32% | 45,000 | 200,000 | 245,000 |
| Tanzania | 28% | 12,250,000 | ||
| Libya | 22% | 400,000 | 1,000,000 | 1,400,000 |
| Zimbabwe | 21% | 2,600,000 | ||
| Argentina | 19% | 3,100,000 | 4,500,000 | 7,600,000 |
| China | 15% | 200,000,000 | ||
| Panama | 15% | 510,000 | ||
| Sri Lanka | 14% | 2,800,000 | ||
| Guatemala | 13% | 1,800,000 | ||
| Spain | 11% | 4,250,000 | 200,000 | 3,450,000 |
| United Kingdom | 10% | 5,797,000 | 330,000 | 6,127,000 |
| Namibia | 9% | 200,000 | ||
| Malta | 9% | 39,000 | ||
| Senegal | 8% | 1,000,000 | ||
| Sweden | 8% | 750,000 | ||
| Zambia | 7% | 947,000 | ||
| South Korea | 6% | 2,820,000 | ||
| Papua New Guinea | 6% | 102,000 | 70,000 | 172,000 |
| India | 5% | 60,000,000 | ||
| Cyprus | 5% | 40,000 | ||
| Vietnam | 4% | 3,500,000 | ||
| Finland | 4% | 200,000 | ||
| Mexico | 3% | 3,000,000 | ||
| France | 3% | 1,800,000 | ||
| Serbia | 3% | 300,000 | ||
| Peru | 2% | 500,000 | 80,000 | 580,000 |
| Austria | 2% | 160,000 | ||
| Colombia | 1% | 600,000 | ||
| Philippines | 0.9% | 850,000 | ||
| Denmark | 0.9% | 50,000 | ||
| DR Congo | 0.8% | 600,000 | ||
| Uruguay | 0.5% | 15,000 | ||
| Venezuela | 0.4% | 100,000 | ||
| Thailand | 0.2% | 150,000 | ||
| Czech Republic | 0.14% | 15,000 | ||
| Haiti | 0.1% | 11,500 | ||
| Nigeria | 0.01% | 20,000 | ||
| Brazil | - | 144,700,000 |
What countries put fluoride in tap water?
There are 25 countries that currently put fluoride in their tap water: United States, Brazil, Malaysia, Australia, Canada, Chile, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Israel, Singapore, Spain, Vietnam, Ireland, Argentina, South Korea, New Zealand, Guatemala, Panama, Peru, Libya, Brunei, Serbia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and Guyana.- The extent of water fluoridation - The British Fluoridation Society
- Support of fluoridation - The British Fluoridation Society
- Countries that fluoridate their water - Fluoridealert.org (British Fluoridation Society)
- Extent of Water Fluoridation - British Fluoridation Society
- Tooth Decay in F vs NF Countries - Fluoride Alert