Household drinking water bills rose an average of 62% from 2015 to 2025 among utilities studied by Food & Water Watch, outpacing inflation and grocery prices.
Privately-owned water systems charged households 67% more than public systems on average in 2025, according to the report.
Low-income households faced unaffordable water costs in 93% of the systems analyzed, based on the group’s affordability threshold.
Consumers watching their grocery and electricity bills climb have another unlikely expense squeezing their budgets: water.
A report released by Food & Water Watch, an environmental advocacy organization, found that household drinking water bills increased at 1.6 times the overall inflation rate and more than twice the rate of grocery prices over the past decade.
“A water affordability crisis is rapidly expanding throughout America,” said Mary Grant, the organization’s water policy director. Grant attributed rising bills to corporate ownership and insufficient federal investment in aging infrastructure.
The analysis examined the nation’s 500 largest community water systems, serving approximately 155 million people. Researchers calculated annual bills for a household using 60,000 gallons, allowing comparisons at a consistent consumption level.
Average charges
The average system charged $531 in 2025, or about $44 a month. Those figures exclude wastewater and stormwater charges, which can substantially increase a household’s total utility bill.
Costs varied sharply. Annual bills ranged from $133 at a public system in Hempstead, New York, to $1,416 at San Jose Water Company in California.
For-profit systems charged an average of $823 annually, compared with $494 at publicly-owned systems. Food & Water Watch advocates public ownership; the comparison describes average charges across different systems and does not isolate ownership from every other factor affecting costs.
The burden was particularly pronounced for poorer households. Researchers classified drinking water bills exceeding 1.5% of income for the poorest fifth of households in each state as unaffordable. By that measure, nearly all surveyed systems exceeded the threshold.
Declining access
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) separately estimated in its 2024 affordability assessment that between 12.1 million and 19.2 million U.S. households lacked affordable access to water services. The agency says affordability means paying essential water bills without sacrificing other household needs.
Further increases may lie ahead. The American Water Works Association estimates that drinking water infrastructure and other critical needs will require $2.1 trillion to $2.4 trillion through 2050. Its assessment identifies aging equipment, treatment requirements, climate resilience, and cybersecurity as mounting expenses.
The association warns that relying entirely on household bills to close the infrastructure funding gap could more than double average drinking water bills by 2050, even after accounting for inflation.
Consumers struggling to pay should contact their utility about available customer assistance programs. The EPA identifies such programs as one approach to reducing the burden. However, the temporary federal Low Income Household Water Assistance Program has exhausted its funding and is no longer providing benefits.