How much have water bills gone up?

About 62% from 2015 to 2025 at the 500 largest U.S. water systems, according to Food & Water Watch. That's about 1.6 times the rate of inflation and added nearly $200 a year to a typical household's drinking water bill.

What is the average water bill in the U.S.?

$531 a year for drinking water in 2025, based on 60,000 gallons of household use at the 500 largest systems, according to Food & Water Watch. That excludes sewer and stormwater charges, which are often billed separately.

Which state has the most expensive water bills?

West Virginia, where the largest systems averaged $1,383 a year in 2025, according to Food & Water Watch. Idaho had the lowest average at $286. The single most expensive system was San Jose Water in California at $1,416.

U.S. water bills jump 62% in a decade, outpacing inflation

The average bill hit $531 a year. In Hempstead, New York, it was $133. In San Jose, it was $1,416.

The typical American household paid 62% more for drinking water in 2025 than in 2015, according to a new analysis by Food & Water Watch, a Washington-based advocacy group. Bills rose faster than inflation, grocery prices, and household incomes.

The group compared typical bills at the 500 largest community water systems, which serve about 155 million people, or 45% of the country, with its own 2015 findings. It assumed a household uses 60,000 gallons a year and left out sewer and stormwater charges, which are often billed by separate utilities. The average bill came to $531 a year.

Overall consumer prices rose 39% over the same decade, so water bills climbed about 1.6 times as fast. Grocery prices rose 30%. Water bills also grew 19% faster than the national median household income. In dollars, the increase added nearly $200 a year to a typical household's water costs.

"A water affordability crisis is rapidly expanding throughout America," said Mary Grant, the group's water policy director, according to FOX 5 Atlanta.

Where you live makes a big difference. The cheapest bill in the study was $133 a year, from a public system in Hempstead, New York. The most expensive was $1,416, from San Jose Water, a private company in California. That's a gap of $1,283, more than ten times as much for the same amount of water. By state, West Virginia's largest systems averaged $1,383, the highest, and Idaho's averaged $286, the lowest.

All 25 of the cheapest systems were publicly owned, and 60% were in the South, many of them in Florida and Georgia. Several serve fast-growing cities, including Dallas, Orlando, and Phoenix, each of which added more than 100,000 people to its service area over the decade. More than half of the 25 most expensive systems were in California.

The biggest average increases by state were in New Hampshire (177%), Oregon (114%), and West Virginia (95%). Among individual systems, changes ranged from a 308% increase in Daly City, California, to a 26% decrease in Orange County, Florida, where the former Disney-controlled Reedy Creek district was taken over by the public Central Florida Tourism Oversight District in 2022.

Ownership was the group's other big finding. For-profit water companies charged typical households an average of $823 in 2025, compared with $494 for publicly owned systems, a difference of $329, or 67%. Food & Water Watch, which argues for public, locally controlled water systems, said the average public system charged less in 2025 than the average private company did in 2015.

The private water industry pushed back. The National Association of Water Companies said comparisons based on published rate schedules can overlook differences in water use, infrastructure needs, operating costs, and customer assistance programs, WaterWorld reported. The group's president, Robert F. Powelson, said comparing rates without more context gives an incomplete picture. The association said regulated private water companies have invested more than $43.5 billion in infrastructure over the past decade.

Both sides point to the same pressures: aging pipes, new treatment for contaminants like PFAS, and extreme weather. The EPA estimates drinking water systems will need $625 billion in upgrades over the next two decades just to meet existing water quality standards, and the extra federal water funding from the 2021 infrastructure law ran out in fiscal year 2026, according to the report.

The study found water bills were unaffordable for low-income households in 93% of the systems it analyzed. No federal agency tracks household water bills, the group says, which is why it collects the numbers itself.