Major stocks of water on earth

(thousand cubic kilometers)

  Volume
(1000 km3)		 Percentage of total water Percentage of total fresh water
Salt water stocks
1. Oceans 1 338 000 96.54  
2. Saline/brackish groundwater 12 870 0.93
3. Saltwater lakes 85 0.006
Total salt water stocks 1 350 955 97.476
Freshwater stocks
4. Glaciers, permanent snowcover 24 064 1.74 68.7
5. Fresh groundwater 10 530 0.76 30.06
6. Ground ice, permafrost 300 0.022 0.86
Total frozen and underground freshwater stocks 34 894 2.522 99.62
7. Freshwater lakes 91 0.007 0.26
8. Soil moisture 16.5 0.001 0.05
9. Atmospheric water vapour 12.9 0.001 0.04
10. Marshes, wetlands* 11.5 0.001 0.03
11. Rivers 2.12 0.0002 0.006
12. Incorporated in biota* 1.12 0.0001 0.003
Total not frozen or underground freshwater stocks 135 0.0103 0.389
Total freshwater stocks 35 029 2.5323 100
Total water on earth (1000 km3) 1 385 984 100  
Source: Adapted from Peter H. Gleick. The World's Water 2000-2001. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2000.
Note: Totals may not add due to rounding.
* Marshes, wetlands and water incorporated in biota are often mixed salt and fresh water.