The 10 m³/month benchmark is a standardised household-consumption assumption. It is broadly consistent with Eurostat water-use figures: Eurostat reports median household water use from public supply at around 40–50 m³ per inhabitant per year, which corresponds to roughly 8–10 m³/month for an average household of about 2.3 people.

Household water use source:  
[https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Water\_statistics](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Water_statistics)

Average household size source:  
[https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ilc\_lvph01/default/table?lang=en](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ilc_lvph01/default/table?lang=en)

The values are either tariffs applicable in 2025 or tariffs already in force as of January 2026, and they include all taxes and fees.

Some values are local capital tariffs, while others are official national proxies. Water tariffs can vary by municipality or utility, so national proxies may not exactly match the capital tariff, but they provide a comparable official benchmark where local data was not available.

* Local proxies: Athens, Budapest, Valletta, Nicosia, Sofia, Zagreb, Bucharest, Vilnius, Ljubljana, Tallinn, Riga, Bratislava, Warsaw, Vienna, Stockholm, Brussels, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Prague, Luxembourg City.
* National official proxies: Dublin, Madrid, Rome, Lisbon, Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin.

Source type: Sources are official tariff sources, including government/statistical sources, regulators, municipal authorities, and official water utilities. Some utilities are publicly owned, while others operate under public concession or regulation.

On the website, in the “City Ranking” section, if you select the “Water” metric, the table shows the source next to every value displayed.

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The second chart shows the estimated 10 m³/month water bill as a percentage of national monthly mean equivalised net income. Ideally, capital-level water costs would be compared with capital-level income, but comparable city-level income data is not consistently available across all EU capitals. Since average incomes in capitals are often higher than national averages, the percentages may overstate the burden in some cases. Still, I think it is useful as a cross-country affordability proxy.

For mean equivalised net income, I used Eurostat ilc\_di03 annual national mean equivalised net income values for 2025, which refer to the 2024 income reference year, divided by 12:  
[https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ilc\_di03/default/table?lang=en](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ilc_di03/default/table?lang=en)

The values used here are filtered by age class 18–64. The income measure is still based on total household net income adjusted for household size and composition.

Eurostat uses the modified OECD equivalence scale: the first adult counts as 1.0, each additional household member aged 14 or over counts as 0.5, and each child under 14 counts as 0.3.

Source:  
[https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Glossary%3AEquivalised\_disposable\_income](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Glossary%3AEquivalised_disposable_income)

Example: if John earns €20,000 net per year, Mary earns €20,000, and John’s grandfather, aged 67, earns €10,000, and they all live in the same household, total household net income is €50,000. With an equivalence scale of 2.0, the household’s equivalised net income is €25,000 per year. This value is then assigned to each household member.

With the 18–64 filter, John and Mary would each be counted in the final average with an equivalised net income of €25,000 per year, while the grandfather would not be counted in that final average. However, the grandfather’s income and household weight still affect the household’s equivalised income.

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The website features an interactive map where users can click on each capital to quickly access data across different metrics. Users can also compare metrics against each other, such as gross minimum wage vs estimated monthly water bill, view rankings across multiple indicators, and see the source behind every data point. A dedicated methodology section explains how the data was collected, standardised, and calculated.

Source: [citycostatlas.com](http://citycostatlas.com) and Instagram: citycostatlas

Estimated monthly water bill across EU capitals — 10 m³/month consumption