- A landmark new study shows indoor residential water use has dropped by more than 44% since 1999.
- Better appliances and plumbing codes are credited for driving most of the savings, not changes in human behavior.
- The average toilet now uses nearly half the water per flush compared to toilets from a generation ago.
- For the first time, the study also examined water use in multi-family housing such as apartment buildings.
- Data from more than 69,000 homes across 52 water utilities in the United States and Canada support the findings.
Monday, June 22, 2026 — The average American household is using dramatically less water than it did 30 years ago, and most people have not even noticed the change. That is actually the point.
Last week, the Water Research Foundation released its 2026 Residential End Uses of Water study
, the third in a series that began in 1999 and was last updated in 2016. Together, these three studies offer one of the most complete pictures ever assembled of how people use water inside their homes, and the trend is clear: North Americans are getting far more out of every drop.
The Numbers Tell a Striking Story.
In 1999, the average person in a single-family home used about 69.3 gallons of water per day for indoor purposes such as flushing toilets, running faucets, doing laundry, and bathing. By 2026, that number had fallen to 38.5 gallons per person per day, a drop of 44.4%.
To put that in plain terms: households are now doing all the same things they were doing in 1999 while using roughly 30 fewer gallons per person every single day. Over the course of a year, that adds up fast.
Every single indoor water use category showed a decline. But three categories stood out above the rest: clothes washers, toilets, and faucets.
Washing Machines Lead the Way.
If there is one household appliance most responsible for the overall decline in water use, it is the clothes washer. Per-person water use from laundry has dropped by 67.6% since 1999, which equals roughly 10 gallons per person per day.
The shift has been driven largely by federal energy standards that manufacturers have had to meet over the years. Front-loading and high-efficiency top-loading machines have replaced older models that used significantly more water per load. Most households simply bought a new machine when the old one wore out, and the savings followed automatically.
Toilets: A Quiet Revolution in the Bathroom.
The modern toilet has also changed dramatically since the late 1990s. The average flush volume in 2026 is 1.84 gallons, down from roughly 3.5 gallons in 1999. That represents a 46.6% reduction in water used per flush.
Older toilets commonly used 3.5 to 7 gallons per flush. Federal standards introduced in the 1990s capped new toilets at 1.6 gallons, and manufacturers have continued pushing that number lower. As older toilets have been replaced over the decades, the nationwide average has steadily declined.
It Did Not Require a Lifestyle Change.
Perhaps the most important finding for water managers and policymakers is this: people did not have to change their habits to achieve these gains.
Peter Mayer, Principal Engineer at WaterDM and the lead author of all three studies over the past 30 years, put it directly.
“The primary reason for the changes in indoor use measured across these three studies is the installation and use of water efficient fixtures and appliances,” Mayer said. “National plumbing codes and energy standards have improved efficiency without requiring people to change their water use behaviors at home much, if at all.”
That is a significant point. Conservation campaigns that ask people to take shorter showers or turn off the tap while brushing their teeth can help at the margins. But the data show that the biggest gains have come from upgrading the equipment itself, not from changing human behavior.
A First Look at Apartment Buildings.
This edition of the study broke new ground by examining water use in multi-family housing for the first time. Residents living in smaller apartment buildings with two to six individually metered units used an average of 39.8 gallons per person per day indoors, a figure very close to the single-family home average of 38.5 gallons.
The inclusion of multi-family data matters because millions of Americans live in apartments and smaller rental units, and water managers have long had limited information about how those residents use water compared to homeowners.
A Study Built on Real-World Data.
The 2026 study drew on data from 52 participating water utilities across the United States and Canada. The lead research contractor, Flume Inc., collected high-resolution water use data from more than 69,000 single-family homes and more than 1,000 multi-family homes.
High-resolution data means the researchers could track water use in fine detail, down to individual fixtures and appliances, rather than relying solely on monthly billing totals. That level of detail gives utilities and planners a much clearer picture of where water is actually going inside the home.
Kenan Ozekin, Chief Research Officer for the Water Research Foundation, noted the lasting influence of the study series.
“The Residential End Uses of Water studies have been some of the most downloaded and cited studies conducted by The Water Research Foundation,” Ozekin said. “These studies have helped utilities, planners, private industry, and more, offering improved understanding of where and how water is used in residential settings using basic customer billing data together with innovative high-resolution measurement techniques.”
Why This Matters for the West.
For communities across the American West, where water supply is a constant concern, findings like these carry real weight. Water managers use studies like this one to forecast future demand, plan infrastructure investments, and set conservation goals.
The data suggest that continued replacement of older fixtures and appliances, combined with updated plumbing codes, could deliver additional savings in the years ahead without placing the burden of conservation entirely on individual households.
The Water Research Foundation is a nonprofit research organization based in the United States that funds and publishes research on drinking water, wastewater, water reuse, and stormwater systems. The full 2026 study, including an interactive data dashboard, is available through the foundation.
