About 1 in 9 people on a community water system gets water from one that is privately owned. Most of those systems are small.
About 37.3 million people in the U.S. get their tap water from a community water system that is privately owned, according to EPA records. That’s about 11.4% of the roughly 328 million people served by community water systems. Most of the rest, about 85%, are served by systems owned by cities, counties, towns or water districts.
“Privately owned” covers many kinds of owners. It includes investor-owned water companies, but also homeowners associations, mobile home parks, apartment complexes, subdivisions, nonprofit water associations and small businesses that supply water to their neighbors. Most private systems are tiny: 18,283 of the 22,189 private community systems serve 500 people or fewer, while 67 serve more than 100,000.
The share varies a lot by state:
- Highest: Delaware (61%), New Jersey (39%), Kentucky (36%), Idaho (36%) and Connecticut (36%)
- Lowest: Alabama (1.0%), Minnesota (1.1%) and Nebraska (1.2%)
Read the state numbers with care
Owner type is reported by each state to the EPA, and states don’t always classify systems the same way. For example, Louisville Water Company is owned by the city of Louisville but is listed as private in the federal records. Without it, Kentucky’s private share would be about 20% instead of 36%. Another 1,162 systems serving about 4.7 million people are listed as mixed public/private and aren’t counted as private here. Population figures are each system’s own estimate, and some people may be counted by more than one system when one utility sells water to another.
The data also can’t show who the owners are beyond the basic type, so it can’t separate a family-run water company from a large utility or a homeowners association. Ownership type alone doesn’t tell you anything about water quality or price.
What this means for plumbers and contractors
Whoever owns the system, the pipes inside a home or business belong to the property owner, and that work goes to local plumbers. That’s true in states where private systems serve a large share of people, such as Pennsylvania (31%), and in states where they serve very few. See our guides to plumbing insurance in Pennsylvania and plumbing insurance in Kentucky.
How we got these numbers
We downloaded every active community water system (systems that serve the same people year-round, such as homes) for all 50 states and D.C. from the EPA’s ECHO drinking water search, which draws on the Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS). We counted systems whose owner type is “Private” and added up the population each reports serving. Schools, offices, campgrounds and other systems that don’t serve residents year-round aren’t included. The EPA explains system types on its public water systems page. Data pulled October 18, 2026.