US Water Bills Rose 62% in a Decade, Outpacing Inflation, Groceries and Wages

American households are paying 62% more for drinking water than they did ten years ago — a jump that has outrun inflation, grocery prices and wage growth, and left low-income families in some states spending a fifth of their income just to keep the taps on.

The figures come from a report released October 6, 2026, by Food & Water Watch, a Washington D.C.-based environmental advocacy nonprofit. To produce the report, the group examined 2025 billing data from the 500 largest community water systems in the United States — systems that collectively serve about 155 million people, or roughly 45% of the national population — then measured those figures against a comparable survey it carried out in 2015. The study covers drinking water charges only and does not include wastewater or stormwater fees, which are typically billed separately.

A household consuming 60,000 gallons in 2025 faced an average annual drinking water bill of $531. But that average conceals enormous variation: the cheapest system in the study billed just $133 a year, while the most expensive charged $1,416. The 25 priciest systems all charged more than $1,000. Consumer prices rose 39% over the same decade, groceries rose 30%, and eggs rose 28% — all well below the 62% climb in water bills. Between 2014 and 2024, water costs climbed 19 percentage points faster than the national median household income.

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.— Mary Grant, Water Program Director, Food & Water Watch

The study draws a sharp line between who owns the pipes and what customers pay. At an average of $823 per household in 2025, corporate-owned utilities billed customers 67% more than publicly owned systems, which averaged $494. Although private systems represented only 11% of the 500 utilities examined, they made up 44% of the 25 most expensive and 70% of the 10 costliest. Every one of the 25 lowest-cost systems was publicly owned, with roughly 60% of them located in the South, Florida and Georgia among them. Among the leading private operators, the report identifies American Water, Essential Utilities, and California Water Service Group. West Virginia's two largest systems — both owned by American Water — billed customers an average of $1,383 a year.

More than half — 52% — of the 25 most expensive systems were in California. Other states with particularly high bills included Pennsylvania, Alaska, Oregon, Illinois, and California, according to Gizmodo's reporting on the study. The steepest decade-long increases were in New Hampshire, where bills jumped 177%; Oregon, at 114%; and West Virginia, at 95%. In New Hampshire, the pace of water bill increases ran nearly five times that of the state's median household income growth over the same period.

The affordability picture is bleakest for the poorest households. The study flags bills as unaffordable when they exceed 1.5% of income for the lowest-earning fifth of households. By that measure, 93% of the 500 systems crossed the threshold. Only Idaho and Utah stayed below it. In West Virginia, water bills consumed roughly 11% of low-income household income. In Puerto Rico, the figure reached about 20% — a level the report described as 'simply unaffordable by any metric.'

An unaffordable bill is often an unpaid bill.— Mary Grant, Water Policy Director, Food & Water Watch

According to Grant, customers who fall behind on payments risk shutoffs or, depending on the jurisdiction, liens placed on their homes. She attributed rising costs to three overlapping forces: corporate control of water systems, federal disinvestment, and climate change — including drought, storms, and wildfires that strain both supply and infrastructure.

The federal funding picture is set to worsen. Enacted in 2021, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law directed approximately $50 billion toward water infrastructure over a five-year period. A drop of roughly 63% — to $8.6 billion — is projected for fiscal year 2027, based on an August report by Bluefield Research, a water market-data firm cited by Bloomberg. Beyond that, the Trump administration is also proposing to sharply reduce the longstanding state revolving funds that help finance local water projects, and in some areas demand for those funds already outstrips what is available, according to Grant.

The American Water Works Association (AWWA), a nonprofit whose membership includes more than 4,300 utilities supplying roughly 80% of North America's drinking water, identified infrastructure renewal, resilience requirements, and regulatory compliance as the chief factors driving costs higher. It projected that if communities rely exclusively on ratepayer revenue to meet those needs, the average annual household bill could climb from $429 in 2025 to $969 by 2050 in real terms. That projection would leave an estimated 30.4 million households — 21.5% of the total — spending more than 2.5% of their income on drinking water, while 53.5 million households — 37.8% — would surpass the 1.5% threshold. The AWWA estimated that $13.6 billion per year in assistance would be needed by 2050 to keep bills below commonly understood affordability benchmarks.

If communities rely exclusively on revenue from water bills to address these needs, average annual household drinking water bills would rise from $429 in 2025 to $969 by 2050 (2025 dollars) – more than doubling in real terms.— Greg Kail, Spokesperson, American Water Works Association

The National Association of Water Companies (NAWC), which represents privately owned utilities, said it had not reviewed the Food & Water Watch study but acknowledged affordability as a 'legitimate challenge.' Spokesperson Jenn Kocher cited aging infrastructure, PFAS and lead regulations, cybersecurity costs, and severe weather as cost drivers, and highlighted customer-assistance programs offered by private companies, arguing that published rates may not reflect what low-income customers actually pay after assistance.

Separately, Bluefield Research found that combined water and sewer bills across 50 major US cities rose 24.2% between 2020 and 2025, and that drinking water bills alone rose 6% just from 2024 to 2025 — broadly consistent with the Food & Water Watch findings, according to Bloomberg.

One emerging pressure the report flags but cannot yet quantify: AI data centers. According to Bluefield Research, municipal drinking water systems supply more than 97% of the water consumed by major data center operators. Grant said her group has not yet identified communities where data centers have demonstrably increased residential water bills, and both Grant and Bluefield analyst Megan Bondar noted that because water infrastructure is financed over decades, any impact will be slower to materialize than on the electricity side.

Without real solutions to hold polluters accountable, establish local affordability programs and expand federal support, systems serving vulnerable communities could face the impossible choice: forgo an urgent water safety project or price many out of water service.— Mary Grant, Water Program Director, Food & Water Watch

The Food & Water Watch report calls on every level of government to act — restoring federal funding, holding polluters accountable for contamination from lead pipes and PFAS chemicals, and establishing local affordability programs. Without that, the group warns, the communities least able to pay will be forced to choose between safe water and affordable water.

Why it matters — Water is not optional — and with federal infrastructure funding set to drop sharply and no national affordability program in place, the gap between what water costs and what millions of households can pay is on track to widen significantly over the next 25 years.

Sources differ on Affordability threshold for water bills: 1.5% of household income (for lowest-earning fifth) (yahoo.com (Food & Water Watch definition)) vs 3%–4.5% of household income (combined water and sewer) (finance.yahoo.com (EPA definition))

Reported by bloomberg.com, yahoo.com, stateline.org, responsibleus.com, insideclimatenews.org, crbcnews.com, finance.yahoo.com, gizmodo.com, qz.com