The cost of drinking water is soaring throughout the United States, a study, which tracks the 10-year change in water bills among the 500 largest systems in the country, shows.
“While struggling to pay for other essentials like food and energy, many households are grappling with water costs that are rising even faster,” Mary Grant, water policy director at Food & Water Watch, an advocacy group, said in a statement. “Rampant corporate control of our water systems and federal disinvestment in aging infrastructure are driving up bills, forcing households to pick up the tab.”
Grant said policymakers need to rein in corporate abuses, hold polluters accountable, and provide dedicated funding for water systems.
“Everyone should have access to safe and affordable water,” she said.
Among the report’s top findings:
- Water bills have increased by an average of 62 percent for typical households over the last decade.
- Water bills increased at 1.6 times the rate of inflation and more than two times greater than the price of groceries over the last decade.
- Corporate water systems charged 67 percent more than publicly owned systems in 2025, or an extra $329 a year on average.
- Average households with public water service paid less in 2025 than those with privately owned service paid in 2015.
- Water bills have increased 19 percent faster than median household incomes on average nationally over the last decade; in some states the increases far outpaced incomes.
The study compared 2025 water bills in the 500 largest systems to those from Food & Water Watch’s last comprehensive study of these systems in 2015.
In the list of the top 10 most expensive water systems in the study, California and Pennsylvania stood out with numerous appearances. However, in Louisiana, Maryland, New Hampshire, and West Virginia, water bills grew about twice as fast as their corresponding statewide median household incomes.
West Virginia, a state with one of the lowest average household incomes in the country, had the highest average water cost, at $1,383/year. Overall, water bills were unaffordable for low-income households in nearly all, 93 percent,of the surveyed water systems.
