Some interesting facts and figures on water and wastewater usage

What is water used for?

About 410,000 million gallons per day of water was withdrawn for use in the United States during 2005. Use of this total by category, with the percentage of the total that category uses in parentheses:

Withdrawals of water in the US in 2005 by category, in percent
Source of facts, graphic above and statistics: U.S. Geological Survey (Summary of Estimated Water Use in the United States in 2005 [1])

More facts and statistics [2] from EPA WaterSense

Easy-to-understand descriptions of household and large-scale water user in the United States

How is drinking water delivered (about public drinking water systems)?

There are 157,000 public water systems in the United States (systems that regularly supply drinking water to at least 25 people or 15 service connections). Most people in the U.S. (294 million) get their water from a community water system. More than 97 percent of these systems are small—serving fewer than 10,000 people. More than 80 percent of these systems serve fewer than 500 people.
There are approximately 52,000 community water systems (a type of public water system - one that supplies water to the same population year-round), but just eight percent of those systems (4,132) serve 82 percent of the population.

Source of the above facts: EPA

For more facts in this area, the EPA publishes an annual FACTOIDS: Drinking Water and Ground Water Statistics (2009 edition [3]). Also see the EPA's Public Drinking Water Systems: Facts and Figures [4].

How much water do we consume?

Each day each one of us uses - and discards - some 150-600 liters (40-159 gallons) of water: 60-150 liters (16-40 gallons) per person per day in developing countries to 500-800 liter (132-200 gallons) per person per day in the industrialized world.

People in the industrialized world generate 5 times more wastewater per person than in developing countries - but treat more than 90 percent of the wastewater compared to only a few percent in developing countries.

Source of the above facts: Sick Water? The Central Role of Wastewater Management in Sustainable Development [5], a report from the United Nations Environmental Program (2010)

More facts & figures delivered in a fun way

For water facts and figures delivered to you on occasion and in a fun way, join the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's page on Facebook. The EPA's Office of Water maintains its “Water Is Worth It” page [6] on the popular social networking site on the web. The page is designed to provide a public forum to share information, encourage discussion, and raise awareness about the value of water and water-related resources. EPA posts information and discussion topics regularly, which Facebook users can have delivered to their virtual door by becoming a “fan” of the page. The EPA encourages visitors to post and interact with the discussion and learning about our nation’s water and water infrastructure.

An infographic on water usage around the world - statistics and comparisons

Infrastructure facts

How much does the government help with water infrastructure?

In the early 1970s, the federal government contributed 70 percent of the funds used for water infrastructure improvement, but this share dropped to less than 5 percent by 2007. (Source: DC Water [7])

Facts & Figures