US households are paying 62% more for drinking water than they did a decade ago – outpacing inflation, grocery prices and household incomes, according to a new study.
Food & Water Watch, a Washington DC-based non-profit, analyzed 2025 billing data from the 500 largest community water systems in the US, which together serve about 155 million people, or 45% of the country’s population. The analysis compared current rates with data from a similar Food & Water Watch survey conducted in 2015. The study does not include wastewater or storm water charges, which are often billed separately from drinking water service.
In 2025, the average household using 60,000 gallons of water paid $531 for drinking water service, according to the study. However, costs varied widely, with annual bills ranging from $133 at the cheapest system to $1,416 at the most expensive.
Water prices rose 1.6 times faster than overall inflation between 2015 and 2025. Consumer prices increased 39% during that period, compared with a 62% jump in water bills, according to the study. Water costs also rose more than twice as fast as groceries, which increased 30%, and eggs, which rose 28%.
Water bills also rose faster than household incomes, increasing 19% more than the national median household income between 2014 and 2024, the study found.
Mary Grant, Food & Water Watch’s water program director and a co-author of the study, said: “Water bills are increasing much faster than many households can keep up with and these escalating water costs impact every corner of the country. Low-income households are being hit the hardest.
“Corporate water abuses, federal disinvestment and climate change are supercharging water rate hikes across the country.”
The increases were particularly severe in some states. Water bills in New Hampshire jumped 177% over the decade, followed by Oregon at 114% and West Virginia at 95%. In Louisiana, Maryland and West Virginia, water bills grew at roughly twice the rate of state median household incomes, while in New Hampshire water bills increased nearly five times faster.
the Guardian
US households pay 62% more for water than they did a deca...
For-profit water corporations, federal cuts and climate crisis are ‘supercharging water rate hikes’, study co-author saysI remember reading an article fifteen to twenty years ago how JP Morgan, Black Rock and big hedge funds were investing in utilities. Guess this is the outcome.
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