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Municipal waste per capita

Tier B· ReputableDescriptive

Municipal waste generated per person per year. Descriptive — largely tracks consumption and wealth. OECD-only.

100 = most waste generated per capita, 0 = least — descriptive, not better or worse. ⚠️ OECD members only (~38 countries): read it as a within-OECD comparison, not a world ranking.

Mixed reference years (2012–2024). This metric uses each country's most recent available year, so countries are not all measured in the same year — cross-country comparison is weakened. Each row shows its own reference year.

How this score is built

Municipal waste generated per capita, in kg per person per year — OECD via the OECD SDMX API (CC BY 4.0). Descriptive: waste generation largely tracks consumption and income, so a higher figure is not straightforwardly "worse" (a rich, high-recycling country can out-generate a poor one) — it uses a neutral colour and is off the radar; read it alongside the recycling rate.

⚠️ OECD + partners only (~61 countries) — a within-group comparison, not a world ranking. Normalized with min–max; the raw kg is shown. Most recent year per country.

⚠️ Limited coverage — not a world ranking. Only 61 of 250 countries have data for this indicator, so most of the map is grey by design. Read the ranking below (the primary view here) as a comparison within the covered group, not a global one.

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0
100No datadescriptive — not better/worse

100 = most waste generated per capita, 0 = least — descriptive, not better or worse. ⚠️ OECD members only (~38 countries): read it as a within-OECD comparison, not a world ranking.

The map is mostly grey because only 61 countries have data — this is expected, not a rendering error.

Ranking

61 countries with data. Rank 1 = best. Click a column to sort; click a country for its full provenance.

Rank ↑CountryScoreRaw value
1stUnited StatesUSA
100100
791.581 kg per capita
2ndAustriaAUT
98.7699
782.209 kg per capita
3rdDenmarkDNK
95.1395
754.734 kg per capita
4thNorwayNOR
89.9790
715.8 kg per capita
5thBelgiumBEL
88.7689
706.603 kg per capita
6thLuxembourgLUX
85.9286
685.169 kg per capita
7thIsraelISR
85.2485
679.978 kg per capita
8thSwitzerlandCHE
84.8185
676.756 kg per capita
9thCosta RicaCRI
83.2783
665.119 kg per capita
10thMaltaMLT
81.9582
655.152 kg per capita
11thNew ZealandNZL
80.2380
642.124 kg per capita
12thGermanyDEU
77.3877
620.571 kg per capita
13thIrelandIRL
74.274
596.542 kg per capita
14thIcelandISL
71.5772
576.693 kg per capita
15thMontenegroMNE
70.8671
571.28 kg per capita
16thRussiaRUS
69.1569
558.346 kg per capita
17thFranceFRA
67.4767
545.657 kg per capita
18thCzechiaCZE
67.2567
543.998 kg per capita
19thGreeceGRC
66.9167
541.438 kg per capita
20thPortugalPRT
65.7166
532.35 kg per capita
21stSloveniaSVN
65.165
527.781 kg per capita
22ndAustraliaAUS
62.763
509.638 kg per capita
23rdCyprusCYP
60.4460
492.577 kg per capita
24thItalyITA
59.5760
485.996 kg per capita
25thCroatiaHRV
59.4259
484.811 kg per capita
26thSlovakiaSVK
58.9359
481.111 kg per capita
27thNorth MacedoniaMKD
58.7159
479.475 kg per capita
28thNetherlandsNLD
5757
466.516 kg per capita
29thLithuaniaLTU
56.9857
466.361 kg per capita
30thSpainESP
56.8357
465.279 kg per capita
31stBulgariaBGR
56.7257
464.404 kg per capita
32ndLatviaLVA
56.2756
461.012 kg per capita
33rdFinlandFIN
55.8156
457.56 kg per capita
34thSerbiaSRB
55.7456
457.01 kg per capita
35thChileCHL
53.554
440.098 kg per capita
36thBelarusBLR
53.0853
436.896 kg per capita
37thUnited KingdomGBR
52.8553
435.144 kg per capita
38thSouth KoreaKOR
52.5953
433.17 kg per capita
39thArgentinaARG
51.5952
425.631 kg per capita
40thSwedenSWE
51.5752
425.49 kg per capita
41stHungaryHUN
49.3849
408.909 kg per capita
42ndTürkiyeTUR
47.2647
392.928 kg per capita
43rdEstoniaEST
45.2945
378.002 kg per capita
44thPolandPOL
43.8844
367.376 kg per capita
45thBosnia and HerzegovinaBIH
42.2142
354.755 kg per capita
46thThailandTHA
41.3541
348.263 kg per capita
47thJapanJPN
36.7437
313.369 kg per capita
48thGeorgiaGEO
36.4236
310.951 kg per capita
49thMexicoMEX
35.8836
306.916 kg per capita
50thRomaniaROU
35.5636
304.507 kg per capita
51stAzerbaijanAZE
30.1530
263.612 kg per capita
52ndUkraineUKR
28.9629
254.579 kg per capita
53rdMoldovaMDA
28.9129
254.185 kg per capita
54thColombiaCOL
27.8928
246.459 kg per capita
55thChinaCHN
18.9119
178.603 kg per capita
56thBrazilBRA
17.618
168.681 kg per capita
57thArmeniaARM
14.7615
147.211 kg per capita
58thSaudi ArabiaSAU
5.976
80.7649 kg per capita
59thBangladeshBGD
1.131
44.2198 kg per capita
60thIndiaIND
1.11
43.9638 kg per capita
61stIndonesiaIDN
00
35.6713 kg per capita
Municipal waste per capita — country ranking · WorldScore