A magnetic angle encoder comprising counting wheels, with columnar ring-shaped permanent magnets coaxially mounted to the counting wheels, tunneling magnetoresistive angular displacement sensors, and a digital processing circuit. In the magnetic angle encoder, the tunneling magnetoresistive angular displacement sensors are located in a region within detection planes of the permanent magnets with an axial distance and a specific radial distance from the permanent magnets. Within this specific radius range, the rotating magnetic field angle (Φ) of the component of the magnetic field generated by the permanent magnets in the detection planes varies linearly with the rotation phase angle (α) of the permanent magnets. An electronic water meter is also disclosed, and it comprises a plurality of counting units and a digital processing circuit. The counting units contain counting wheels, permanent magnets, and tunneling magnetoresistive angular displacement sensors. The digital processing circuit is connected to each tunneling magnetoresistive angular displacement sensor, and converts the output of the tunneling magnetoresistive angular displacement sensors into a digital code. The magnetic angle encoder and the electronic water meter have the advantages of small size and high measurement accuracy.