Freshwater lakes contain about 87% of this fresh surface water, including 29% in the African Great Lakes, 20% in Lake Baikal in Russia, 21% in the North American Great Lakes, and 14% in other lakes. Swamps have most of the balance with only a small amount in rivers, most notably the Amazon River.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freshwater
Out of all the water on Earth, saline water in oceans, seas and saline groundwater make up about 97% of it. Only 2.5–2.75% is fresh water, including 1.75–2% frozen in glaciers, ice and snow, 0.5–0.75% as fresh groundwater and soil moisture, and less than 0.01% of it as surface water in lakes, swamps and rivers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freshwater
The Earth's freshwater is even rarer. For humanity to thrive, or even exist, we need to sprinkle that teeny bit of fresh water in the right places, at the right times and in just the right amounts, Gallo said. Here's how Earth's freshwater is spread around the globe: 1  70 percent of freshwater is locked in ice caps.
http://www.livescience.com/29673-how-much-water-on-earth.html
About 3% of the water on Earth is fresh. Only about .1% of the fresh water is visible on land. About 75% of the fresh water is locked in glaciers and ice caps.
http://www.answers.com/Q/What_percentage_of_water_is_freshwater
Canada s freshwater resources are a generous endowment for a country of 35 million people. At the same time, more than 50 percent of it drains northward into Hudson Bay and the Arctic Ocean. This means that fresh water is unavailable to 85 percent of people living along Canada s southern border. While abundant, the remaining fresh water supply is heavily used. Estimates of Canada s fresh water supply vary from 5.6 percent to 9 percent to 20 percent of the total water supply.
http://www.canadafaq.ca/how+much+worlds+fresh+water+in+canada/
How much of earths water is freshwater? Out of all the water on Earth, only 2.75 percent is fresh water, including 2.05 percent frozen in glaciers, 0.68 percent as groundwater and 0.011 percent of it as surface wate … r in lakes and rivers.
http://www.answers.com/Q/What_percentage_of_water_is_freshwater
How much water is that? It's roughly 326 million cubic miles (1.332 billion cubic kilometers), according to a recent study from the U.S. Geological Survey. Some 72 percent of Earth is covered in water, but 97 percent of that is salty ocean water and not suitable for drinking. There's not a lot of water on Earth at all, said David Gallo, an oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts. Oceans create a water layer spanning 15,000 miles (24,000 kilometers) across the planet at an average depth of more than 2 miles (3.2 km).
http://www.livescience.com/29673-how-much-water-on-earth.html
Confidence votes 177. The total volume of water on Earth is about 1.4 billion cubic kilometers, around 41 million of which is fresh water. 3 percent of the world's water is fresh, however only 0.768% is usable for consumption. The remaining portion of fresh water is locked up in glaciers, permanent snow fields, the Arctic, Antarctica, the atmosphere, living organisms (plants and animals) or is polluted.
http://www.answers.com/Q/What_percentage_of_water_is_freshwater
Canada s fresh water resources represent 7 percent of the world s renewable fresh water. About 20 percent of the world fresh water is found in Canada, but less than half of it is considered renewable. Most of the fresh water is in the form of fossil water in glaciers, underground aquifers, and lakes.
http://www.canadafaq.ca/how+much+worlds+fresh+water+in+canada/
Fresh water is generally characterized by having low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. The term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water although it does include mineral-rich waters such as chalybeate springs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freshwater
what percentage of water is fresh water
Fresh water is about 2.5 to 2.75 percent. About 2.5 to 2.75 percentage of water is fresh water.