Quick Facts:
- Most developed nations, including 97% of western Europe, do not fluoridate their drinking water.
- Of the 34 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), only 10 have water fluoridation programs.
- Four of the 10 OECD countries with water fluoridation programs have less than 15% of their population drinking fluoridated water: South Korea (6%), Spain (11%), and the United Kingdom (11%).
- Only 6 OECD countries have more than 50% of their populations drinking fluoridated water: Australia (80%), Chile (70%), the Irish Republic (73%), Israel (70%), New Zealand (61%), and the United States (64%).
- Excluding the United States, just 7% of the population in OECD countries consumes artificially fluoridated water.
- In total, 369,656,000 people worldwide drink artificially fluoridated water. This represents 5% of the world’s population.
- There are more people drinking fluoridated water in the United States than the rest of the world combined.
- There is no difference in tooth decay between western nations that fluoridate their water and those that do not.
| Water Fluoridation Status of OECD Nations (BFS 2012) |
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| Country | Population Size* | No. of People w/ Fluoridated Water** | % w/ Fluoridated Water** |
| Australia | 22,692,531 | 17,600,000 | 80% |
| Austria | 8,452,835 | 0 | 0% |
| Belgium | 10,951,266 | 0 | 0% |
| Canada | 34,880,400 | 14,260,000 | 44% |
| Chile | 17,402,630 | 11,000,000 | 70% |
| Czech Republic | 10,504,203 | 0 | 0% |
| Denmark | 5,584,758 | 0 | 0% |
| Estonia | 1,294,236 | 0 | 0% |
| Finland | 5,413,830 | 0 | 0% |
| France | 65,350,000 | 0 | 0% |
| Germany | 81,859,000 | 0 | 0% |
| Greece | 10,787,690 | 0 | 0% |
| Hungary | 9,962,000 | 0 | 0% |
| Iceland | 320,060 | 0 | 0% |
| Irish Republic | 4,588,252 | 3,250,000 | 73% |
| Israel | 7,879,500 | 5,270,000 | 70% |
| Italy | 60,820,787 | 0 | 0% |
| Japan | 127,530,000 | 0 | 0% |
| Luxembourg | 511,800 | 0 | 0% |
| Mexico | 112,336,538 | 0 | 0% |
| Netherlands | 16,738,836 | 0 | 0% |
| New Zealand | 4,434,400 | 2,330,000 | 61% |
| Norway | 5,027,800 | 0 | 0% |
| Poland | 38,501,000 | 0 | 0% |
| Portugal | 10,561,614 | 0 | 0% |
| Slovakia | 5,445,324 | 0 | 0% |
| Slovenia | 2,057,910 | 0 | 0% |
| South Korea | 48,580,000 | 2,820,000 | 6% |
| Spain | 46,163,116 | 4,250,000 | 11% |
| Sweden | 9,495,113 | 0 | 0% |
| Switzerland | 7,952,600 | 0 | 0% |
| Turkey | 74,724,269 | 0 | 0% |
| United Kingdom | 62,262,000 | 5,797,000 | 11% |
| United States | 314,059,000 | 185,767,000 | 64% |
| TOTAL (with United States) |
1,245,125,298 | 252,344,000 | 20% |
| TOTAL (without United States) |
931,066,298 | 66,577,000 | 7% |
| * List of Countries by Population – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population ** British Fluoridation Society (2012). One in a Million: The facts about water fluoridation. Available online at: http://www.bfsweb.org/onemillion/onemillion2012.htmlNOTE: The data for “Population Size” is mostly from 2012, whereas the “Number of People with Fluoridated Water” and “Percent with Fluoridated Water” data is based on estimates that the British Fluoridation Society (BFS) appears to have derived between 2009 and 2011. This time difference may explain why some of the BFS’s estimates for “Percent with Fluoridated Water” are incorrect when calculating the population data in this table. |
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