EnergyData brief
Water and sewer prices rose 41% since 2016, vs 34% for all items
- Water & sewerage CPI, 2025 vs 2016
- +41.3%
- All-items CPI, 2025 vs 2016
- +34.1%
- Water & sewerage CPI, 2025 vs 2015
- +47.2% (all items +35.8%)
- Food & Water Watch, 2025 vs 2015 (per Gizmodo)
- +62%
tecntrend.com/briefs/2026-10-07/water-bills
BLS consumer price data shows the national water index running ahead of inflation, though by less than the 62% in the new report.
Gizmodo reports on a Food & Water Watch analysis of the 500 largest US community water systems. It finds typical household drinking-water bills rose 62% from 2015 to 2025, to an average of $531 in 2025, faster than inflation.
The BLS tells a milder but same-direction story for the whole country. Its CPI for water and sewerage maintenance averaged 41% above its 2016 level in 2025, against 34% for all items. From 2015 to 2025 the water index rose 47% and all-items 36%. The gap narrowed in 2021 to 2022 when general inflation spiked, then reopened to about 7 index points by 2025.
The two measures differ: BLS covers all areas and includes sewerage, while the report covers drinking-water bills of big systems. Both show water getting dearer faster than prices overall.
Data, method and caveats
- BLS CPI-U, US city average, series CUUR0000SEHG01 (water and sewerage maintenance) and CUUR0000SA0 (all items), not seasonally adjusted, 1982-84=100 public domain (US government) · captured 2026-10-07
- BLS Public Data API v1 public domain (US government) · captured 2026-10-07
- Gizmodo on Food & Water Watch report news report, figures quoted not reproduced · captured 2026-10-07
- Annual values are 12-month averages of monthly index values computed from the API; for 2024 and 2025 they match BLS's published annual averages exactly. The October 2025 index was not published (missing in BLS data), so the 2025 average uses 11 months, as BLS does.
- 2026 is the January to August average, not a full year.
- BLS measures price change for a fixed basket including sewerage; Food & Water Watch compares typical drinking-water bills at 500 large systems, so 62% and 41% are not directly comparable. The report's 'times faster than inflation' ratio was not recomputed.
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