Domestic well locations and populations served in the contiguous U.S.: 2010, Block-group method (BGM) dataset

The 1990 census was the last nationally consistent survey of a home’s source of water, and has not been surveyed since. The associated larger work presents a method for projecting the population dependent on domestic wells for years after 1990, using information from the 1990 census along with population data from subsequent censuses. The method is based on the “domestic ratio” at the census block-group level, defined here as the number of households dependent on domestic wells divided by the total population. Analysis of 1990 data (>220,000 block-groups) indicates that the domestic ratio is a function of the household density. As household density increases, the domestic ratio decreases, once a household density threshold is met. [...]