1. Introduction
With escalating climate pressures, rising customer expectations, and mounting regulatory scrutiny, leakage and burst performance have become a strategic imperative. Across the UK and globally, billions of litres of treated water are lost daily, representing not only a significant resource inefficiency but also a substantial financial and reputational risk.
To help quantify the scale of the challenge, and the opportunity, we’ve gathered key leakage and burst statistics from the UK and around the world that every utility leader and investor should know in 2025.
2. UK Leakage Statistics
2,690 megalitres of treated water is lost to leaks every day in England (Gov.uk)
Here's what you could do with 2,690 megalitres:
- Fill 1,076 Olympic swimming pools
- Supply water to roughly 17.93 million people for a day (the average person uses about 150 litres/day)
- Provide water for about 21,000 households for an entire year (the average household uses about 350 litres of water per day)
- Give 66% of the world’s population a 500ml water bottle
- Supply nearly all of London’s water needs for a day
- Fill over 500 modern cruise ships
Key Statistics
- 19% of treated water in England is lost to leaks before reaching consumers (Gov.uk)
- 25% of all leakage comes from customer-owned supply pipes (Water.org)
- High leakage regions experience 2.3x more supply interruptions (Gov.uk)
Leakage Reduction
Leakage in England and Wales has reduced:
Commitments
- Water companies in England and Wales committed to reducing leakage by 16% between 2020–2025 (Ofwat)
- English water companies have pledged to reduce leakage by 50% by 2050 (Water UK)
Scotland
- In Scotland, 462 megalitres of water is lost to leaks each day (Scottish Water)
- Leakage in Scotland has been reduced by 58% in the past 18 years (Scottish Water)
3. UK Burst Statistics
Pipe bursts are frequent and costly:
- Across England & Wales, 44,616 pipe repairs were carried out in 2023 - 2024 (Discover Water)
- This equates to well over 100 bursts per day nationwide (Discover Water)
- English and Welsh water companies delivered a 25% reduction in mains bursts in 2023 - 24 compared to the previous year (Ofwat)
- In Scotland, January 2025 sub-zero temperatures led to a 30% increase in bursts (Scottish Water)
4. North American Leakage Statistics
Each day an estimated 6 billion gallons of treated water leaks out of the water systems before reaching customers in the US (ASCE).
Here's what you could do with 6 billion gallons of water:
- Give enough drinking water for 32 million people for a whole year
- Fill 9,090 Olympic swimming pools
- Cover 2 hours of water flow over the Niagara Falls
- Cover the water needs of New York City’s 8.5 million people for 6 days
- Wash 150 million cars
- Fight 300,000 house fires
- Do 300 million loads of laundry
Key Statistics - USA and Canada
- The US drinking water infrastructure system consists of 2.2 million miles of pipeline (ASCE)
- In the US, on average, 19.5% of total treated drinking water is lost before it reaches customers (Bluefield Research)
- About 87% of total water loss stems from real losses (e.g. leaks and burst pipes) (Bluefield Research)
- Leakage rates vary across the nation, with some US water systems reporting leakage rates of up to 60% (McKinsey)
- Water losses cost US utilities $6.4 billion each year (Bluefield Research)
- In Canada, 10-30% of water is lost to leaks (RCCAO)
5. North American Burst Statistics
Pipe Material Breakdown
6. European Leakage Statistics
On average, about 25% of all treated drinking water in the EU is lost to leakage (Water News Europe).
Losses by country:
Contextual data
- 11 billion m³ of water lost annually in the EU (Eurau)
- Despite a 19% reduction in water abstraction since 2000, 34% of EU territory experienced seasonal water scarcity in 2022 (European Environment Agency)
