Apart from disasters like the one in Flint, Michigan, 99 percent of tap water in the United States is safe to drink. Nevertheless, the myth persists that bottled water is safer than tap water. This is also demonstrated by the
. In 2024, it amounted to over 112 billion U.S. dollars. To put this into context, the
was characterized by a significant growth in recent years as well and is still on the rise. Bottled water is drinking water packaged into plastic or glass bottles. It can further be categorized as sparkling and still water, with or without flavoring.
State of the market
Going by total sales, the U.S. market is the largest bottled water consumer market. In 2023,
U.S. bottled water sales volume amounted to approximately 15.9 billion gallons - the highest volume of bottled water ever sold in the United States. The U.S. market has undergone a major transformation since the early 1990s, when the majority of bottled water production came from smaller, regional operating companies. Today, the market is highly concentrated with
four main brands generating around one billion U.S. dollars in sales each: Glacéau, Aquafina, Poland Spring, and Dasani.
Consumers love bottled water
Bottled water consumption reached an all time high in the United States in 2021, at 47 gallons per capita. In the following two years, it decreased slightly by 0.6 gallons per person. Water as a beverage is and remains popular, even though the
price per unit for bottled water has steadily increased slightly over the years - both for bottled water out of home and at home. In 2024, the price per unit was just over one U.S. dollar for bottled water at home.
This text provides general information. Statista assumes no
liability for the information given being complete or correct.
Due to varying update cycles, statistics can display more up-to-date
data than referenced in the text.
