Thailand's Chiang Mai Has Most Public Toilets But European Cities Dominate The List

Public toilets are arguably the most crucial civic amenity, not just for travellers but also for residents of any city. As urban populations grow, investing in public toilets has become more important than ever. While some cities still struggle with inadequate facilities, others have built extensive networks of public restrooms that make commuting, sightseeing, and everyday life far more convenient. 

For the evaluation, QS Supplies used Euromonitor's most recent index of the Top 100 City Destinations to build a seed list of popular travel destinations and then used OpenStreetMap to search for amenities labelled as toilets in each one and calculate the number of public toilets per 100,000 people across major cities worldwide. During the study, if a city did not have proper borders on OpenStreetMap, it was excluded immediately. The team also manually adjusted cities with abnormally high public toilet counts that included toilets in universities, which are not accessible to non-university students.

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According to the report, Chiang Mai in Thailand ranks first globally for large cities with 92.7 public toilets per 100,000 people, while Zurich in Switzerland offers the best access among global tourist hotspots at 76.5 toilets per 100,000 people. Among the UK and US cities, Exeter tops the UK with 38.7 per 100,000, and Salt Lake City claims the top spot in the US at 66.6 restrooms per 100,000 people. 

Take a look at the top 10 cities with the most public toilets.

1. Chiang Mai, Thailand

Chiang Mai in Thailand boasts 92.7 public toilets per 100,000 people, the highest toilet count per capita of any large city globally.

2. Bern, Switzerland 

Bern ranks among the top global cities for public restroom availability, averaging roughly 91.2 public toilets per 100,000 residents.

3. Basel, Switzerland

Basel ranks third with 79.4 public toilets per 100,000 residents.

4. Zurich, Switzerland 

The tourist city with the best toilet access globally is Zurich in Switzerland, where there are 76.5 restrooms per 100,000 people.

5. Salt Lake City, United States

Salt Lake City has 66.6 public restrooms per 100,000 people, the highest density of any large U.S. city and the fifth highest in the world.

6. Christchurch, New Zealand 

Christchurch ranks globally among cities with high public restroom availability, providing approximately 66 public toilets per 100,000 residents.

7. Graz, Austria 

Ranking at the top among all cities in Austria, Graz is currently at 7th position for public toilet availability. 

8. Espo, Finland 

Espoo ranks 8th worldwide with 58.9 public toilets per 100,000 residents.

9. Linz, Austria

Linz ranks 9th globally in public restroom availability, providing roughly 52 toilets per 100,000 people.

10. Honolulu, United States 

After Salt Lake City, Honolulu comes second in the United States. It ranks at No. 10  in major urban public toilet studies.

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Among tourist cities, Zurich was at the top, Lisbon came second with 52.5 toilets per 100,000 people and Sydney, Australia's most populous city, was third, with 45 toilets. While Salt Lake City ranked fifth on the global list, the only tourist city in the US recognised among the top 10 was San Francisco. The City by the Bay has 32.6 public toilets for every 100,000 people.