The Country Similarity Index attempts to quantify how similar countries are to each other relative to other countries. The index is a statistically-based way to measure this. 20% of the index is based on technology. 10% of a country’s technology score (2% of the overall Country Similarity Index score) is allocated for the country’s sanitation infrastructure. The following are the statistics that were included in the calculation:
Water Quality
Although people may have access to drinking water, the quality of the water varies greatly from country to country. Generally speaking, poorer countries tend to have worse water quality. Burundi and Kenya have some of the lowest water quality, while European countries have the highest water quality.
Yale University was the source of the data:
https://epi.yale.edu/epi-indicator-report/UWD
Water quality was categorized into the following scores:
0-20, 20-40, 40-60, 60-80, 80-100
Water Potability
Some countries have tap that does not require users to filter or boil it before drinking it. Most of these countries are in Western Europe. In general the richest countries have it, however this is not always the case. For instance, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and Taiwan do not have it, despite having high GDP per capita. The vast majority of countries do not have potable tap water.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention was the source of the data:
https://www.mappingmegan.com/travelers-guide-to-safe-tap-water-countries-with-unsafe-drinking-water-can-i-drink-the-water-in/
Water potability was categorized into the following types:
Potable, Non-Potable
Improved Sanitation Access
A significant percentage of the world still does not have access to hygienic sanitation. Improved sanitation facilities include flush toilets, pit latrines, ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrine, and composting toilet. Access to improved sanitation is highly correlated with how wealthy a country is. Poorer countries have low access. South Sudan has the lowest with less than 10% of its people having access.
The World Bank was the source of the data:
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-population-with-improved-sanitation-faciltities?year=latest&country=~GIN
The percentage of the population with access to improved sanitation facilities was categorized into the following types:
0-20%, 20-40%, 40-55%, 55-70%, 70-80%, 80-90%, 90-95%, 95-100%
Improved Sanitation Access
A significant percentage of the world still does not have access to hygienic sanitation. Improved sanitation facilities include flush toilets, pit latrines, ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrine, and composting toilet. Access to improved sanitation is highly correlated with how wealthy a country is. Poorer countries have low access. South Sudan has the lowest with less than 10% of its people having access.
The World Bank was the source of the data:
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-population-with-improved-sanitation-faciltities?year=latest&country=~GIN
The percentage of the population with access to improved sanitation facilities was categorized into the following types:
0-20%, 20-40%, 40-55%, 55-70%, 70-80%, 80-90%, 90-95%, 95-100%
Open Defecation
A significant percentage of the world still does not have access to hygienic sanitation. Improved sanitation facilities include flush toilets, pit latrines, ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrine, and composting toilet. Access to improved sanitation is highly correlated with how wealthy a country is. Poorer countries have low access. South Sudan has the lowest with less than 10% of its people having access.
The Our World in Data was the source of the data:
https://ourworldindata.org/sanitation
The percentage of the population that defecates in fields, forests, bushes, bodies of water, or other open spaces:
0-5%, 5-10%, 10-20%, 20-40%, 40-80%
Air Quality
European and Latin American countries tend to have the best air quality. In contrast, South Asia and East Asia tend to have the lowest air quality. This is because these regions still rely heavily on fossil fuels, such as coal, which contributes to air pollution. They have undergone industrialization in recent decades, leading to increased energy consumption, factory emissions, and rapid urbanization. Many European and Latin American countries instead rely on renewable sources of energy, such as hydropower, nuclear, and wind.
The Our World in Data was the source of the data:
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/air-quality-index
The air quality index of each country was categorized into the following groups:
0-40, 40-60, 60-80, 80-90, 90-100