# Medium water systems — rate and finance benchmark

> **Cite as:** Municorn.us, "Medium water systems — rate and finance benchmark", Municorn water loss index, https://municorn.us/benchmark/medium-systems/ (source filings retrieved 2026-09-12).
> **Licence:** CC BY 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ — reuse and redistribution are permitted with attribution to Municorn.us and a link to this URL.
> **Caveat that must travel with these figures:** "Water loss" is at least three different quantities depending on the jurisdiction, and nothing here supports a comparison between states.

EPA calls a system medium by the population it serves. 5,012 systems in this study are in that category, and 90 are published in full.

| Metric | n | p10 | median | p90 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annual residential water bill at 72 HCF | 133 | $375 | $728 | $1,235 |
| Water utility revenue per connection | 2,453 | $305 | $588 | $1,149 |
| Water utility operating cost per connection | 2,332 | $205 | $456 | $944 |
| Water utility capital spending per connection | 1,342 | $10 | $90 | $668 |
| Operating cost as a share of revenue | 2,286 | 0.41 | 0.78 | 1.36 |
| Annual water bill as a share of median household income | 116 | 0.40% | 0.75% | 1.42% |
| Median household income in the service territory | 4,056 | $45,542 | $70,025 | $122,046 |

_Municorn.us · https://municorn.us/benchmark/medium-systems/ · CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ · source filings retrieved 2026-09-12_