China has 50 million citizens going in the open. That's only 4 percent of its 1.3 billion population. More than 267 million Chinese have gained access to improved sanitation since 1990, according to the WHO. As the Los Angeles Times recently found, China's surge in wealth is also causing a spike in toilet purchases. Nearly 19 million toilets are sold in China annually – double the number sold in America.
China is one of the few countries where going to the bathroom outside is much more common in cities than in the countryside. Six percent of the urban population – compared to 2 percent of the rural population – go in the open, according the WHO's 2010 update on sanitation.
