Facts and figures
In 2022, 1.1 million people lived in plumbing poverty in the USA.
A total of 534,000 US households lacked running water in their homes – a population the size of Austin, Texas, the nation’s tenth largest city: a city of the unplumbed.
Alarmingly, plumbing poverty has grown in 12 of the 15 largest US cities since 2017. The housing and affordability crisis has ballooned, pushing more people into the margins of precarious living. We are witnessing a new age of modern water in western democracies—the era of the reproductive squeeze.
The Myths
1
Plumbing poverty is a rural problem.
2
The problem is restricted to mobile homes.
3
Europe doesn’t have plumbing poverty.
4
Plumbing poverty is color-blind.
5
The problem is just bad plumbing. Myth 1
Plumbing poverty is a rural problem.
Fact: Since the 1990s, the majority of US households without running water are in metropolitan areas, with almost half located in the country’s 50 largest cities.
Among US households without water access: 79% are in cities, 5% in small towns, and 16% in rural areas. Nationally, one in five (17.3%) US households without running water (81,000 in total) live in the 10 largest metros. Overall, these numbers reveal that water access in the USA is largely an urban problem—and we found the problem is growing in some of the country’s most elite cities.
Source data: US Census Bureau 2022.Myth 2
The problem is restricted to mobile homes and caravans.
Fact: Just 12% of US households without running water live in mobile homes.
An estimated 82% of households without running water occupy single-unit homes or apartment buildings, with just 6% in other housing types, such as mobile homes (‘caravans’ in the UK and Europe). Although a mobile home dweller is twice as likely to lack running water compared to other types of housing, the odds change across place and space. Mobile homes are not the only kind of housing that experiences plumbing poverty.
Source data: US Census Bureau 2022.Myth 3
Europe doesn’t have plumbing poverty.
Fact: In 2011, a total of 1.51 million households in five European countries (Greece, Ireland, Romania, Spain, and Portugal) lacked running water in their homes.
While European trends have improved since 1970, our research so far shows that these ‘gains’ are not socially or spatially equitable. Plumbing poverty grew in Barcelona and Cádiz, Spain from 1990 to 2011. In Dublin, Ireland—a city now facing a severe housing affordability crisis—plumbing poverty has grown a whopping 340% (84 to 369 households) from 2011 to 2022, despite a citywide population increase of just 8.5% in that same period. In short, we show that households are gradually being ‘squeezed’ into conditions of plumbing poverty in European countries, too—not just in the USA.
Source data: IPUMS-International and Ireland Central Statistics Office.Myth 4
Plumbing poverty is color-blind.
Fact: People of color represent the majority of individuals without household running water in 12 of the 15 largest US cities.
Despite overall improvement in US cities since 2000, households of color are increasingly excluded from the ‘gains’ in water access in favor of white households—in some cities, at several magnitudes of order. From 2000 to 2021, plumbing poverty in Portland, Oregon increased by 56.3%—a 359% increase for Black Portlanders. Racial disparity rates for households of color without running water are highest in Philadelphia (26%), followed by Phoenix (23%), Detroit (22%), Boston (15%), New York City (14%), Portland (12%), San Francisco (12%), and Chicago (12%). Race (and racism) matters more than ever in explaining access to life-supporting infrastructure.
Source data: US Census Bureau and IPUMS-USA.Myth 5
The problem is just bad plumbing.
Fact: Despite housing laws and regulations, US renters are still 1.6 times more likely to live in homes without running water.
After the 2008 global financial crisis, and as the housing market rebounded, many renters faced new rules and corporate landlords—conditions that have squeezed low-income households into worse (but less expensive) rental housing. The root of the problem is not technical—it is social and institutional.
Source data: US Census Bureau, IPUMS-USA, and Meehan et al 2024.