Soda Loses Top Spot to Water in U.S. Beverage Consumption

Water is replacing soda as America's top beverage. Americans now drink an average of 44 gallons of soda a year, a 17 percent drop from the peak in 1998. Over the same time, the average amount of water people drink has increased 38 percent, to about 58 gallons a year. Bottled water has led that growth, with consumption nearly doubling to 21 gallons a year. For more than two decades, soda was the No. 1 drink in the U.S. with consumption peaking in 1998 at 54 gallons a year, according to Beverage Digest,