Where Is All of Earth's Water? About 97 Percent Is in the Ocean

Almost all of the water on Earth is in the ocean. The ocean holds about 97 percent of the planet's water. Everything else — glaciers and ice, groundwater, rivers, lakes and the water in the air — shares the remaining three percent.

Of the world's total water supply of about 332 million cubic miles, about 97 percent is in the ocean. Credit: NOAA.

How much water there is

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the planet holds over 332,519,000 cubic miles of water. A cubic mile is the volume of a cube one mile long on each side. Of that total, NOAA's National Geophysical Data Center estimates that 321,003,271 cubic miles is in the ocean.

The other three percent

The rest is spread across many places:

• glaciers and ice
• below the ground
• rivers and lakes
• the atmosphere

Sources

Based on "Where is all of the Earth's water?" from NOAA's National Ocean Service, a work of the United States government in the public domain.