Introduction
This Water Footprint Calculator shows how much water you really use each day. Not just the water from your tap, but also the hidden water used to grow your food, make your clothes, and power your home.
You answer simple questions about showers, toilets, laundry, your lawn, your diet, and more. The calculator adds it all up and gives you two numbers: your whole household total and your per-person total. You can see results in gallons, liters, cubic meters, imperial gallons, or cubic feet.
Your score is split into three parts:
- Indoor water: showers, baths, toilets, sinks, dishes, and laundry.
- Outdoor water: lawn, garden, pool, and car washing.
- Virtual water: the hidden water inside food, energy, driving, and goods you buy.
It then compares you to the average person in your region or around the world. Charts show your biggest water users, and a "what if" section shows how much you would save by making small changes, like a low-flow showerhead or fewer meat meals. A step-by-step section shows the math, so you can see exactly where every number comes from.
Most people use far more water than they think. Knowing your number is the first step to using less.
How to use our Water Footprint Calculator
Answer a few questions about your home, your habits, and what you buy. The calculator shows your household water footprint per day, your water use per person, a split of indoor, outdoor, and hidden (virtual) water, how you compare to average, and tips to save water.
How many people live in your household: Pick the number of people in your home. This scales every per-person result.
Benchmark region: Choose the region you live in, or the global average, to see how your water use compares.
Display results in: Pick gallons, liters, cubic meters, imperial gallons, or cubic feet. All results, charts, and steps switch right away.
Bathroom faucet run time: Pick how long one person runs the bathroom tap each day.
Bathroom faucet type: Choose standard or low-flow (aerated) to set the flow rate.
Typical shower length: Pick how many minutes your showers usually last.
Showerhead type: Choose a standard or low-flow showerhead.
How often do you take a bath: Pick how many baths you take each week, or choose showers only.
Toilet type: Choose an older standard toilet or a low-flow/dual-flush toilet.
Flushing habits: Pick if you flush every time or skip some flushes.
Kitchen sink run time: Pick how long one person runs the kitchen tap each day.
Kitchen faucet aerator: Choose a standard faucet or one with a low-flow aerator.
How do you wash dishes: Pick hand washing, a dishwasher, or single-use and eating out.
Laundry loads per week: Pick how many loads your whole home washes each week.
Washing machine type: Choose a standard top-load or a high-efficiency front-load washer.
Do you reuse greywater: Say yes if you send shower or laundry water to your yard. This gives you a credit.
How do you water the lawn and garden: Pick a hose, a smart sprinkler, a timer sprinkler, or no watering.
Rain barrel or cistern: Say yes if you catch rainwater for outdoor use.
Outdoor swimming pool: Choose no pool, a covered pool, or an uncovered pool.
How do you wash vehicles: Pick a commercial car wash, washing at home, or never washing a car.
Weekly driving distance: Type how far one person drives each week and pick miles or kilometers. Fuel takes water to make.
Home energy source: Choose the normal power grid or solar/green energy.
How often do you buy new clothes and goods: Pick minimal, average, or frequent shopping.
What do you recycle: Select paper, plastics, and glass or cans. Each one lowers your goods footprint.
Household diet: Choose vegan/vegetarian, average, or meat-heavy. Food is often the biggest part of your footprint.
Daily coffee, tea, or alcohol: Pick how many drinks you have each day.
Do you have pets: Say yes if you have pets, since pet food adds hidden water.
Calculate and Reset: Results update as you answer. Press Calculate to refresh them, or Reset to start over.
What Is a Water Footprint?
Your water footprint is all the water you use in a day. It counts the water you see, like showers and laundry. It also counts the water you never see, like the water used to grow your food and make your clothes. Most people use far more hidden water than tap water.
The Three Kinds of Water Use
- Indoor water: showers, baths, toilets, sinks, dishes, and laundry. Toilets are the main source of water use in the home, nearly 30 percent of an average home's indoor water.3 Showering accounts for nearly 17 percent of residential indoor water use.4
- Outdoor water: lawns, gardens, pools, and washing cars. Outdoor use averages more than 30 percent of household water use and can be as much as 60 percent in arid regions.1 As much as 50 percent of outdoor water is lost to wind, evaporation, and runoff from inefficient irrigation.1
- Virtual water: the hidden water behind food, fuel, power, and goods. The global average water footprint of beef is 15,415 liters per kilogram.7 That is about 1,850 gallons per pound. One cotton t-shirt takes about 700 gallons, and one cup of coffee about 37 gallons.
Direct vs. Hidden Water
Each American uses an average of 82 gallons of water a day at home.1 But once you add hidden water from food and goods, the water footprint of the average U.S. consumer is 2,842 cubic meters a year.6 That is about 2,000 gallons a day per person. For the average consumer worldwide, cereal products make up 27 percent of the water footprint, meat 22 percent, and milk products 7 percent.6 This is why what you eat and buy matters as much as how long you shower.
Why Water Footprints Matter
Less than 1 percent of Earth's water is available for human use; the rest is salt water, frozen, or too hard to reach.2 Many rivers, lakes, and underground stores are being drained faster than rain can refill them. Cleaning and pumping water also takes lots of energy, so saving water cuts carbon pollution too. Water use and climate change are tied together.
Easy Ways to Use Less Water
- Take shorter showers and put in a water-saving showerhead. Standard showerheads use 2.5 gallons per minute.4
- Switch old toilets for efficient models. Older toilets can use as much as 6 gallons per flush, while newer designs use 1.28 gallons per flush or less.3
- Run the dishwasher and washing machine only when full. Running the dishwasher only when it is full saves the average family nearly 320 gallons a year.1
- Fix drips. A faucet that drips once a second can waste more than 3,000 gallons a year.5
- Water the lawn early in the morning, or use a smart, weather-based timer.
- Eat less red meat. Swapping a few meat meals a week saves more water than months of short showers.
- Buy less new stuff, shop second-hand, and recycle paper, plastic, and glass.
What Counts as a Good Number
The water footprint of the average consumer is 2,842 cubic meters a year in the United States and 1,385 cubic meters a year worldwide.6 That is about 2,000 and 1,000 gallons per person per day. The arid West has some of the highest home water use per person in the U.S. because of landscape irrigation.2 If your number is under your region's average, you are doing well. If it is more than 20% above, your biggest savings are usually in food, goods, lawn watering, and old fixtures.