The water footprint of a country is determined by knowing the total water use of a country and the population of the country. When we divide the total water use by the population size, we determine how much water is used by the average person in the country. As we have seen,
patterns of per capita water use among contries can be very different from patterns in total water use among countries. This is due to
differences among countries in water availablity and the need for water in agriculture and industry.
Let's calculte the per capita water use for the United States.
• Total annual water use in the United States = 5.14 x 1014 L
• Population of the United States = 3.25 x 108 people
• Per capita annual water use in the United States = (5.14 x 1014) L + (3.25 x 103) people
• = (5.14 +3.25) x 10/14-8) L per person (Note: we are going from people to person, as the answer is in person)
• = 1.58 x 10L per person
YOUR TURN
The total daily water use in Canada is 3.59 x 1013 L and the Canadian population is 35 million people. What is the per capita daily water use for
Canada?
L per person
Please note: answer to 2 decimal places, the units are provide (since the units are there, do not write the units). Please write the
number in the correct format, for example, if there is a comma, place it in the corret spot.