Water is perhaps the single-most important liquid on the Earth. The United States Geological Society (USGS) reports that water covers about 71 percent of the Earth’s surface, which is about 96.5 percent of all the water on this globe. The remaining 3.5 percent is contained in clouds, rivers and streams, glaciers, and at the North and South Poles, it reports.
Our bodies also contain a great deal of water, according to most scientists. However, the amount of water in any typical person will vary according to a number of factors, the USGS says on its website. Children are born with an average of 65 percent water content, and adult males average about 60 percent, according to Jeffery Utz, Neuroscience, pediatrics, Allegheny University, as listed on the USGS website. Another factor is body fat. Fat cells hold less water than muscles, so as a body trends more toward obesity, the less water the body can hold. Men also tend to hold more water than women, the USGS says.