# The benchmark data

URL: https://municorn.us/data/benchmark-terms/
Updated: 2026-09-10
Tags: data, license, terms, benchmark

> **Cite as:** Municorn.us, "The benchmark data", Municorn water loss index, https://municorn.us/data/benchmark-terms/ (source filings retrieved 2026-09-10).
> **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.

The distributions are open and citable. The figures for a single system are not served from this site. Write to us for them.

## Available here

**The distributions.** Every percentile table behind every chart in the
benchmark, as [CSV](/benchmark/water-rate-distributions.csv) and
[JSON](/benchmark/water-rate-distributions.json). National, by size
category, by region, by state, by rate structure and by type of owner.
Cohorts of fewer than thirty systems are not published, which is the rule this
site already keeps for a state median.

**These are computed over all 49,378 systems rather than over the named sample.** The
sample governs which systems are named; every distribution, median and count on
this site is over every system in the record. Nationally the residential bill is a
distribution over 1,108 systems and revenue per connection over 13,843, far
more than the 985 that appear by name.

Use, quote, redistribute and build on them. Attribution is appreciated and is
the only thing asked.

**The method.** [How the benchmark is
built](/methodology/american-water-rate-benchmark/) covers how the figures are
checked, why one is sometimes blank, and what they were checked against.

**The systems that are named.** Every system serving over 100,000 people, and a
stratified random sample of the rest, appear on this site with their figures and
with the reason for each of their blanks.

## Not served here

The full file: a row per community water system, with every published field and
the reason behind every withheld figure.

There is no URL for it. It is not linked, not in the sitemap, and not behind a
form. **Write to us and ask**: <ammar@municorn.us>.

There is no paywall and no rate limit; anyone who asks gets it. We ask because
the per-system rows are usually an input to a specific piece of work, and we
would rather know what that work is.

## Limitations

**A number here describes a filing, not a utility.** Filings are consistent
across thousands of systems, which is what makes them comparable. They are not
an audit. Two specifics to carry into anything you quote:

- **Water utility revenue and spending come from a government's own statutory
  return, and roughly a quarter of those amounts are the collecting agency's
  estimate rather than the government's own report.** Every figure carries that
  distinction.
- **Household income for a system that is not a municipality is a
  population-weighted mean of small-area medians, which is not a median.** It is
  labelled as derived everywhere it appears.

## Citing it

> Municorn.us, *The 2026 American Water Rate and Finance Benchmark*.
> https://municorn.us/benchmark/

A versioned deposit of the aggregate layer with a DOI is in preparation. This
page will carry the DOI once it exists.

_Municorn.us · https://municorn.us/data/benchmark-terms/ · CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ · source filings retrieved 2026-09-10_

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