Comparison of water pricing for publicly and privately owned water utilities in the United States

ABSTRACT

The relation between water utility ownership structure and price of water is explored in this study, along with other factors such as water source, population size, population density, population growth trends, service area size, and drought condition. Pricing data were obtained from water utilities in 485 cities in the US (333 publicly owned, 152 privately owned), representing a range of city sizes and geographic distribution. The data were analyzed to explore the significance of variables for water price. On average, privately owned water utilities have higher prices for water.

KEYWORDS:

• Water tariff
• privatization
• water pricing
• water utility
• United States

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.