Convergence Analysis of the Improved Water Sources for 203 Countries

The Millennium Development Goals by the United Nations included a global target for Improved Water Source to reach 88% of global population by 2015. By 2010, the global target was reached. However, there are still millions of people lacking the improved access to drinking water. We propose the use of convergence methodology to examine improved water source data for 203 countries to determine whether the gap between water-rich versus water-poor countries has narrowed during the period of 2000 to 2015. Results of our analysis indicate convergence toward reduction of dispersion as well as toward increase of catch-up effect. However, significant variations are found among the subgroups of countries defined by income levels and regions.Implications of our findings will be discussed