Answer:
Water covers about 71% of the earth's surface.
326 million cubic miles of water on the planet
97% of the earth's water is found in the oceans (too salty for drinking, growing crops, and most industrial uses except cooling).
320 million cubic miles of water in the oceans
3% of the earth's water is fresh.
2.5% of the earth's fresh water is unavailable: locked up in glaciers, polar ice caps, atmosphere, and soil; highly polluted; or lies too far under the earth's surface to be extracted at an affordable cost.
0.5% of the earth's water is available fresh water.
If the world's water supply were only 100 liters (26 gallons), our usable water supply of fresh water would be only about 0.003 liter (one-half teaspoon).
In actuality, that amounts to an average of 8.4 million liters (2.2 million gallons) for each person on earth.
This supply is continually collected, purified, and distributed in the natural hydrologic (water) cycle.
Where Water is Found and the PercentageOceans97.2%Ice Caps/Glaciers2.0%Groundwater*0.62%Freshwater Lakes0.009%Inland seas/salt lakes0.008%Atmosphere0.001%Rivers0.0001%TOTAL99.8381%
