 Irrigation accounts for 70 percent of global freshwater withdrawals and 90 percent of consumptive water uses. A new global inventory has been created to determine the extent of areas irrigated with groundwater, surface water, or non-conventional sources. The inventory provides data for 15,038 national and subnational administrative units. Irrigated area was provided by census-based statistics from international and national organizations. A global model was then applied to simulate consumptive water uses for irrigation by water source. Globally, area equipped for irrigation is currently about 301 million hectares of which 38 percent are equipped for irrigation with groundwater. Total consumptive groundwater use for irrigation is estimated as 545 km and lte, sup and gt, 3 and lte slash sup and gt, year and lte, sup and gt, minus 1 and lte slash sup and gt, or 43 percent of the total consumptive irrigation water use of 1277 km and lte, sup and gt, 3 and lte slash sup and gt, year and lte, sup and gt, minus 1 and lte slash sup and gt. The countries with the largest extent of areas equipped for irrigation with groundwater, in absolute terms, are India, 39 million hectares, China, 19 million hectares, and the USA, 17 million hectares. Groundwater use in irrigation is increasing both in absolute terms and in percentage of total irrigation, leading in places to concentrations of users exploiting groundwater storage at rates above groundwater recharge. Despite the uncertainties associated with statistical data available to track patterns and growth of groundwater use for irrigation, the inventory presented here is a major step towards a more informed assessment of agricultural water use and its consequences for the global water cycle. This article was offered by S. Sebert, J. Burke, J. M. Forse, and others. We are article.tv, links in the description below.