All the World’s Water

An incredible amount of water covers Earth. Look at a globe. The blue area represents the water. There are about 200 billion liters (53 billion gallons) of water for each person on Earth!

There is not always enough water to drink, however.

Most of Earth’s water is salty ocean water. Salt water is fine for sea creatures. But it is not fine for humans and most other animals.

Only 3 percent of Earth’s water is fresh water. Fresh water is an important resource that we need every day.

Water in the ocean is salt water.

Water in rivers, lakes, and streams is fresh water.