# Percentage of water in the oceans? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 16, 2008, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-water-in-the-oceans/460165 "2008-08-16T01:29:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-water-in-the-oceans/460165/1 "2008-08-16T01:29:45Z")
Excluding all organisms, what percentage of ocean water is actually H[sub]2[/sub]O as opposed to salts and other minerals/elements? ‘Oceans’ in the title is plural so as to get an average of the percentage of water in all of the oceans. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-water-in-the-oceans/460165/2 "2008-08-16T01:32:22Z")
About 96.5%. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-water-in-the-oceans/460165/3 "2008-08-16T03:23:00Z")
hijack/I thought this thread would was going to ask what percentage of the planets water was in the oceans minus fresh water, atmospheric vapor and ice. Anybody wanna take a crack at that?/hijack ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-water-in-the-oceans/460165/4 "2008-08-16T03:28:43Z")
% by what? By weight, by volume, by mole… I’m not saying I know any of them, but it could make a difference. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-water-in-the-oceans/460165/5 "2008-08-16T03:31:58Z")
[QUOTE=Q.E.D.] About 96.5%. [/QUOTE] I was going to ask for a cite since I’m finding sites that say water in the oceans makes up 96.5% of the water on the planet, but I’m not finding anything that says ‘1 litre of seawater contains 965 ml H[sub]2[/sub]O, _x_ ml dissolved solids, and _y_ ml other liquids’. But then I found [this](http://original.britannica.com/eb/article-9066497/seawater) > [@](#): > > Seawater is a complex mixture of 96.5 percent water, 2.5 percent salts, and smaller amounts of other substances, including dissolved inorganic and organic materials, particulates, and a few atmospheric gases. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-water-in-the-oceans/460165/6 "2008-08-16T03:33:49Z")
[QUOTE=outlierrn] hijack/I thought this thread would was going to ask what percentage of the planets water was in the oceans minus fresh water, atmospheric vapor and ice. Anybody wanna take a crack at that?/hijack [/QUOTE] Not quite the answer, but [check this out](http://blog.phiffer.org/post/27344630/left-all-the-water-in-the-world-1-4087-billion). ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-water-in-the-oceans/460165/7 "2008-08-16T04:14:41Z")
[QUOTE=outlierrn] hijack/I thought this thread would was going to ask what percentage of the planets water was in the oceans minus fresh water, atmospheric vapor and ice. Anybody wanna take a crack at that?/hijack [/QUOTE] Dammit—I saw the answer to that question just a couple of weeks ago on _Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader_, but now I can’t remember what the right answer was. I remember that I guessed it right, though. I think it was in the 5 – 10 percent range for total volume of fresh water. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-water-in-the-oceans/460165/8 "2008-08-16T04:26:45Z")
> [@](#): > > **Water in the world** > [ul] > [li]97.5% of the earth’s water is saltwater. **If the world’s water fitted into a bucket, only one teaspoonful would be drinkable.** [/li] > [li]While the world’s population tripled in the 20th century, the use of renewable water resources has grown six-fold. Within the next fifty years, the world population will increase by another 40 to 50%. (World Water Council)[/li][/ul] Source: [http://www.wateraid.org/international/what\_we\_do/statistics/default.asp](http://www.wateraid.org/international/what_we_do/statistics/default.asp) If you are looking for actual water stats, try here —\> [World Water](http://www.worldwater.org/data.html) ---
**Author:** ![hammos1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@hammos1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hammos1)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-water-in-the-oceans/460165/9 "2008-08-16T11:48:54Z")
[QUOTE=Duckster] 97.5% of the earth’s water is saltwater. If the world’s water fitted into a bucket, only one teaspoonful would be drinkable. [/QUOTE] So a bucket only contains 40 teaspoons of water? Seems like a small bucket. ---
**Author:** ![JayRx1981](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/71e660/32.png) [@JayRx1981](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JayRx1981)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-water-in-the-oceans/460165/10 "2008-08-16T12:45:49Z")
[QUOTE=hammos1] So a bucket only contains 40 teaspoons of water? Seems like a small bucket. [/QUOTE] I would imagine a part of that remaining 2.5% includes brackish water, which reduces the amount of drinkable water to some value \< 2.5%. I’m very possibly wrong since I haven’t the time to delve too far into the links given to find the answer. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/percentage-of-water-in-the-oceans/460165/11 "2008-08-16T14:01:30Z")
Just a note of clarification: I wasn’t asking about the percentage of fresh water on the planet vs. the amount of sea water. I was curious about the percentage of water _in_ sea water, which seems to have been answered.