21 Countries with the Purest, Best Tasting Tap Water in the World

If you are traveling around much, you might be interested which countries with purest, best tasting tap water in the world are. This is a fairly important issue for the travels (just to mention one of the reasons for the importance of pure tap water) because the most common unpleasant and nevertheless common sicknesses when traveling are connected to water. Water, of course, comes from nature and natural resources. Since the matter of clean drinking water is becoming more and more serious question, countries with the most uncontaminated natural springs and water supplies can be considered fortunate ones. According to some scientific researches, Chilehas one of the purest natural water in the world. Scientists doing the research have been using instruments which can detect bad chemical compounds that are two parts per million, and they literally found nothing in Chilean waters of Puerto Williams. But, South American countries are far from having the cleanest drinking water in the world. Actually, drinking tap water in South America isn’t recommended at all. You have maybe heard of competition annually held at Berkeley Springs – Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting. There are competitions in several categories including municipal tap water. The golden award for the best water in the world 2016 in the category of municipal tap water was taken by City of Hamilton, OH. And what about the worst tap water in the world? No general research has been done on this question, but surely some of the worst tape water awards go to some of the US states. Namely, those are tap waters of Puerto Rico, Illinois, and  Michigan. But that is not the end of the list. Tap water in the US is contaminated not only with many harmful substances (lead, mercury, chlorine, arsenic, etc.) but it is also among the top countries in the world whose water is contaminated with plastic. Also, on the similar matter, you might be interested in checking out the 6 Worst Tasting Bottled Waters in America. On the issue of cleanness and safety of tap water, science has the final word. And on the matter of countries with best tasting water in the world, we have also seen what people traveling around have to say. So, some of the resources we have consulted were forums like Quora, Lonely Planet’s forum or Reddit. Of course, after going through these recommendations and different opinions on the purest, best tasting water in the world, we have also checked suggested countries (and also checked some other) particularly, as you will see further on our list. So, after some further research, we have ranked our list of countries with the purest, best tasting tap waters by the counts of mentions on different places concerning the issue. Since we’ve done the similar research earlier (which you can check out at 12 Countries with the Cleanest Tap Water), here we have some data on best tap water in the world 2017. You should always have in mind that, even though we have listed countries on our list, not the whole country will have the great best tasting tap water, as we have seen earlier on the example of the USA, but probably a (great) part of it will. Of course, many other countries not included on our list have perfectly safe drinking water, according to country’s sanitation score, but we took into account the water taste as well. So now, let’s see which the countries with purest, best tasting tap water in the world are:

21. Czech Republic

As in the majority of European countries, tap water is perfectly safe to drink in the Czech Republic, and some would agree on the fact that it is also better than bottled water, which is something that we get to see more often. Water quality in the Czech Republic is very high since public water is constantly being controlled and tested.

20. Germany

Germany has perfectly good tap water, of course, and sometimes municipal tap water, like in Munichfor example, comes from the same source as mineral bottled water! Nevertheless, many Germans still prefer buying bottled water, but it’s probably a matter of habit rather than water quality.

19. USA

We have seen that some of the US states have some of the worst tap water in the world, but since it covers a great territory there are lots of varieties of course. Some of the best municipal waters, for example, come from the USA – namely Ohio was the winner of Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting for this year municipal water.

18. Spain

Not everyone would agree that tap water in Spain is one of the purest, best tasting tap water in the world, but, as we said, some parts of the countries are better, others are worse concerning the drinking water issue. Tap water is drinkable in whole Spain, but the taste is something different. Apart from Barcelona for example, tap water in Madrid or Granada are proud of their fresh, tasty tap water.

17. Italy

As in the most of Europe, tap water in Italy is clean, pure and safe for drinking. Also, there are many public fountains in cities like Rome for example, where you can freely drink water.

16. Netherlands

Netherlands is on our list of countries with purest, best tasting tap water in the world, because, as they say, they have the best drinking water, so clean that you can drink from the canals in cities.

15. Lithuania

Baltic countries often get neglected or forgotten for some reason, probably because they are living peaceful lives on the rim of Europe. But, Baltic lands and Lithuania, in particular, have one of the purest, best tasting tap water. Lithuania has huge deposits of underground water which are very safe because no human intervention gets close to them.

14. Estonia

Yet another of Baltic countries found a spot on our list of countries with purest, best tasting tap water in the world. Apart from being drinkable in the whole country, and 99.86% of the samples taken for the water testing were corresponding to high water quality standards.

13. UK

The UK has one of the purest tap water in the world. From the whole UK, it seems the Scotland can proudly say they have the best water in the country. Also, the tap water price is also around £54 lower than tap water in Wales or England.

12. New Zealand

We are continuing our list of countries with purest, best tasting tap water in the world with New Zealand which has around 3% of the country covered with fresh water. That is a real small fortune, not every country in the world has. And New Zealanders also agree on the choice of tap vs. bottled water with tap water winning the bid.

11. Barbados

You probably were not expecting to see Barbados on the list of countries with purest, best tasting tap water in the world, but it actually is the case. Many people who traveled to Barbados (and here we would take their opinion because Barbados’ residents are already accustomed to the taste) agree on the fact that the water they drank there was one of the cleanest and best tasting.

10. Norway

Tap water is safe to drink in Norway, of course. Even though bottled water is regularly sold, Norwegians rarely use it as a substitute for tap water because it is a fairly normal thing to drink your pure, good tasting tap water at home.

9. Austria

According to some resources, water in Austria (Vienna in this case) comes straight from the Alps and has minimal artificial participation in terms of purifying and adding the chemicals, which makes it one of the purest tap waters. Most of the visitors would agree with the pureness and good taste of Austrian water, and also because drinking water is often available on the street fountains.

8. Finland

Up next on our list of countries with purest, best tasting tap water in the world is Finland which had a really big issue with pollution until some thirty years ago, when a great number of lakes and rivers were polluted because of factory residues. Luckily, the nowadays situation with waters in Finland is much better, and Finland is, in fact, one of the countries with the best tap water in the world.

7. Canada

Canada is yet another of the countries which are leading in the purity and great taste of tap water. Water facilities in Ottawa have over 125,000 quality tests annually, while in Toronto water is tested every 4-6 hours! However, many Canadians still buy bottled water on daily basis, although tap water was proven better than bottled water many times in Canada.

6. Denmark

Being one of the wealthiest countries in the world, no wonder Denmark also has one of the countries with purest, best tasting tap water in the world as well. Danish tap water comes from the deep underground reservoirs, and it is purified through sand filters.

5. Australia

Australia is definitely one of the countries with purest, best tasting tap water in the world. Looking at standards and monitoring and controlling conditions, it is no wonder why this is the case. One of the reasons might be the fact that Australia is very much aware of the rising water issue because a lot of the country is covered in desert and hence has the problem already. Regarding the taste, the best tasting water in Australia is found in New South Wales state.

4. Sweden

Not only because Swedes are much concerned about the environment and therefore rather drink tap instead of bottled water, but it is also simply because Sweden has great tap water. Many people in the countryside have their own wells which supply them with fresh water, and they can do so because nature in Sweden is not as polluted as in many parts (well, the most part we could say) of the world.

3. Switzerland

Since placing in the Alpine mountainous landscape, it is not a surprise that Switzerland has one of the purest and best tasting tap water in the world. And also, being one of the wealthiest countries in the world, all the standards and procedures concerning tap water quality are being followed. Tap water in Switzerland comes from lakes, springs, and groundwater.

2. Greenland

Even though being a part of Denmark politically, Greenland is the land of an extraordinary and unusual landscape in the far north. In the land mostly covered in ice and snow, it would be weird not to be able to drink tap water. Greenland’s tap water is one of the cleanest and safest waters to drink, and you can also freely drink from majority of rivers and lakes. Actually, the water is so good that the Greenland’s government has decided to export ice and water.

1. Iceland

We have finally reached the top of the countries with purest, best tasting tap water in the world, land of sagas, Iceland. About 6% of Iceland’s territory is covered by rivers, and freshwater lakes, from which (and also from the glaciers) comes the best water in the world, according to both to Icelanders and travelers from all over the world.