Do people drink the tap water in the UK?

How are Brits consuming drinking water?

With all the debate about plastic waste from bottled water and microplastics in tap water we wanted to find out where people get their drinking water from. We asked 500 Brits across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to tell us about their drinking water consumption and his is what they told us.

England

• 66% drink the water directly from the tap
• 34% use a filter of some kind
• 15% mainly drink bottled water

The most common complaints about tap water are

• Taste 32%
• Worried about contaminants 31%
• Limescale 28%

The main reason people drink bottled water:

• 39% think bottled water is healthier than tap water
• 35% think bottled water tastes better

57% claim to always recycle (lower than England and Wales)

Scotland

• 83% drink the water directly from the tap
• 14% use a filter of some kind
• Only 4% mainly drink bottled water

The most common complaints about tap water are

• Taste 17%
• Worried about contaminants 14%
• Limescale 10%

The main reason people drink bottled water:

• 21% think bottled water is healthier than tap water
• 4% think bottled water tastes better

52% claim to always recycle (lower than England and Wales)

Wales

• 79% drink the water directly from the tap
• 21% use a filter of some kind
• 12.5% mainly drink bottled water

The most common complaints about tap water are

• Taste 26%
• Worried about contaminants 32%
• Lime scale 16%

The main reason people drink bottled water:

• 42% think bottled water is healthier than tap water
• 37% think bottled water tastes better
• 37% buy more than 10 bottles of water per week

79% claim to always recycle (lower than England and Wales)

Northern Ireland

• 71% drink the water directly from the tap
• 28% use a filter of some kind
• 17% mainly drink bottled water

The most common complaints about tap water are

• Taste 29%
• Worried about contaminants 29%
• Lime scale 36%

The main reason people drink bottled water

• 43% think bottled water is healthier than tap water
• 36% think bottled water tastes better
• 29% buy more than 10 bottles of water per week.

86% claim to always recycle (lower than England and Wales)

Sources:

Survey carries out online January 2018.