For the second consecutive year, The International Bottled Water Association (IBWA), Alexandria, Va., and New York-based Beverage Marketing Corporation (BMC) announced that bottled water is the No. 1 beverage in the United States, by volume.
In 2017, bottled water volume grew to 13.7 billion gallons, a 7 percent increase over the previous year, BMC said in statement. Bottled water sales now total $18.5 billion, an increase of 8.8 percent. Per capita consumption saw a 6.2 percent increase from last year, exceeding over 42 gallons of bottled water. BMC statistics show this is a result of the average annual intake of carbonated soft drinks (CSDs) falling to 37.5 gallons.