Some Data Related to Sales of Chemicals Used in Water Treatment

The World Bank provides the annual water withdrawals for countries at its website.  Click here to find this data.  Using this data, I did a regression analysis of the annual water withdrawal for the 50 countries with highest withdrawals against the countries’ population, then gross domestic product (GDP), and then GDP per person.  All data (water withdrawal amounts, population, and GDP) are 2013 data and can be found at the World Bank site.

Results of the regression analysis show that water withdrawal amounts have a fairly good correlation with a country’s population (R square value = 84%).  The correlation between water withdrawal amounts and GDP is weak (R squire value = 39%).  And, no correlation was found between water withdrawal amounts and GDP per person.

These correlation results do not seem surprising to me.  I would think that the larger a country’s population, the more water would be withdrawn to meet the population’s need.  That some correlation, but a weak one, between water withdrawal amounts and GDP also does not seem surprising.  I would expect that the higher a country’s GDP, the more use (e.g. non-personal use) a country would have for water, but many factors other than GDP likely influence such use and should be taken into account.

Using the water withdrawal amounts found at the World Bank site and the market values (that I found on the Internet) for chemicals used in water treatment, I created this table:

country	total market water treatment chemical	total cubic meters water withdrawn	$ per cubic meter	GDP per person
United States	$   4,500,000,000	478,400,000,000	$  0.009	$ 54,677
global	$ 23,500,000,000	3,906,900,000,000	$  0.006	$ 20,840
China	$   3,000,000,000	554,100,000,000	$  0.005	$    7,595
India	$       485,000,000	761,000,000,000	$  0.001	$    1,596

I was only able to find water treatment chemical market values for the 3 countries in the table.  I was also able to find a global market value for chemicals used in water treatment.  All data in the table are 2013/2014 data.

The table shows the $ per cubic meter of water withdrawn for each country and also on a global basis.   I am wondering whether the $ per cubic meter results might be useful in providing a rough estimate of market values for water treatment chemicals for individual countries.  For example, more advanced countries, such as the US, might have a market value for water treatment chemicals close to $0.009 per cubic meter of water withdrawn.  The average, represented by global, might be around $0.006 per cubic meter water withdrawn, and poorer countries closer to $0.001 per cubic meter withdrawn.

An indicator of more, average, and less developed might be the GDP per person.  For the United States, China, and India these values were computed from World Bank data to be $54,677. $7,595, and $1,596 respectively.  Based on CIA World Fact Book data, the average global GDP per person is $20,840.