An Analysis of the Effects of Sociodemographic Factors on Daily Per Capita Residential Water Use in Texas Cities

This report presents the results of one such study sponsored by the Texas Water Resources Institute. The study has two major objectives: 1. to determine the relationships between key demographic, social and cultural variables and water use in Texas 2. to analyze the implications of the relationships between demographic, social and cultural variables and water use and demand for projections of water use and demand in Texas. Specifically, this report presents the results of an analysis of secondary and primary data in which the relationships between water use and other sociodemographic variables are examined, and it reports the effects of using sociodemographic characteristics to project water use. These relationships are of intrinsic interest to professionals involved in water planning and policy formulation and the results will hopefully be of utility to a wide range of policy and decision makers. The report is organized into five sections. Section I describes the data and methodologies employed in the analysis. Section II presents and discusses the results of the secondary analysis. Section III examines the results of our analysis of survey data from over 800 respondents from 8 communities selected from across the State of Texas. Section IV describes the implications of using demographic and social factors in projecting water use. The final section, Section V, presents generalizations regarding the overall effects of demographic and social factors on water use and demand and presents our preliminary recommendations regarding the use of such variables in formulating water use and demand projections. Throughout the report, it should be recognized that the fact that the study is limited to one period of time and to only selected areas of the State, clearly limits the ability to formulate generalizations that have state-wide applicability. The fact that the study is limited in several regards must be recognized.