From the Division of Oral Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The adjustment of fluoride in drinking water to levels optimum for oral health was first implemented in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1945. The first surveys on water fluoridation status in the United States were compiled in 1952 by the American Dental Association Council on Dental Health and the American Water Works Association. The surveys identified which communities were implementing this emerging technology.
The U.S. Public Health Service has reported water fluoridation statistics periodically since 1956. The Water Fluoridation Census (Census) was published periodically from 1963 through 1992, reporting data compiled from the EPA, U.S. Census Bureau, and surveys of state drinking water and oral health programs. The CDC has been the lead agency in this effort since 1975, and an objective for water fluoridation has been included among the Healthy People national objectives since 1979.
Many of the earlier reports are available below in Portable Document Format (PDF) files. You will need Acrobat Reader (a free application) to view and print these documents. PDF files of these reports were created by scanning archived paper documents, and may not be compatible with software used to read electronic text files as audio files. Persons with disabilities experiencing problems accessing these files should contact OralHealth@cdc.gov, or call (404) 639-3534.
Historical Reports on Fluoridation
| Years | U.S. Statistics | State Statistics | Map of State Status | Map of County Status | MMWR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | View | View | |||
| 2008 | View | View | |||
| 2006 | View | View | View | View | View |
| 2004 | View | View | View | ||
| 20021 | View | View | View | ||
| 20001 | View | View | View | View | |
| 1992 | View |  [PDF–43M] |
View | ||
| 1989 | [PDF–8M] |
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| 1988 | [PDF–866K] |
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| 1985 | [PDF–42M] |
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| 1975 | [PDF–7M] |
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| 1969 | [PDF–5M] |
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| 19692 | [PDF–3.7M] |
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| 1967 | [PDF–2.7M] |
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| 1966 | [PDF–2.5M] |
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| 1965 | [PDF–1.5M] |
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| 1964 | [PDF–1.3M] |
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| 1958 | [PDF–290K] |
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| 1956 | [PDF–321K] |
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| 1952 from Journal ADA3 | [PDF–892K] |
Footnotes
- The 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006 national and state statistics pages were abstracted from the report: Populations receiving optimally fluoridated public drinking water – United States, 1992–2006. MMWR 2008; 57(27):737–741.
- This publication provided a summary of identified naturally fluoridated water systems, but was not a fluoridation census of the United States.
- This article is the earliest known published listing of fluoridated systems. An earlier listing by the American Water Works Association was not as complete as this listing. This has been provided in compliance with copyright protection by the American Dental Association (ADA) from their archives of the Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA) and is presented here with permission for viewing. Users can only use this copy for their personal use, and cannot reproduce this without obtaining copyright permission from JADA.
Released on the same day: 2012 Water Fluoridation Statistics
See also: Calculating Fluoridation Statistics Fact Sheet