U.S. population affected by nitrate-contaminated water

There were 757 large or very large drinking water systems with elevated nitrate levels in the United States between 2017 and 2019, affecting almost 60 million people in urban areas. Of this total, four million people received drinking water with nitrate levels of or above 10 milligrams per liter. Nitrate-contaminated drinking water is often a result of chemical fertilizer and manure run-off from farms, and has been linked to an increased risk of cancer.

Population served by large or very large drinking systems with elevated levels of nitrate in the United States between 2017 and 2019, by level (in millions)

Nitrate levels and number of water systems	Number of people served in millions
-	-
-	-
-	-

Download

Source

Show detailed source information?

Already a member?

Source

Use Ask Statista Research Service

Release date

November 2021

More information

Region

United States

Survey time period

2017 to 2019

Supplementary notes

Analysis based on 757 large or very large community water systems that had at least one detection of nitrate at or above 3 milligrams per liter (mg/L), between 2017 and 2019. Of these systems, 52% used groundwater and 48% used surface water.
The EPA considers any water system to be “large” if it serves between 10,001 and 100,000 people, and “very large” systems serve more than 100,000 people.

Citation formats