nyc us here, only boil water if there is a warning due to a pipe break or something.

Australia here - we drink water straight from the tap, but I picked up the habit of drinking boiled water from my frequent trips to Shanghai.

I’ve never boiled tap. It’s safe where I live. I do have a reverse osmosis filter though. But only for taste, and to remove hardness to protect my glassware.

Here in El Salvador, you can drink tap water safely depending the region you are.

Yes of course it's safe. I drink filtered water from our fridge, but tap is perfectly fine too. I'm from Europe btw.

Straight and fresh from the pipes! Writing from Transilvania, Romania.

In Brazil we usually haver ceramic filters attached to our faucets, so we drink water from there.

I live in Bavaria, Germany, and I've been drinking tap water here for over 30 years without boiling.

But I live in a rural area. I once had a job in the industrial area of a semi-sized city and the tap water there was sketchy.

Depends, I guess.

In England we drink straight from the tap. I live in London which has incredibly hard water so it's not the nicest tasting and it will leave white residue on the glass but it's not bad for you.

Here in the UK we just drink straight from the (cold water only by law due to differring regulations) tap without boiling and that's been the case for decades at the least across the entire nation. There's just no need to boil the water here unless you are cooking.

It's also safe in Iceland, I went there and their water is crystal clear and pure since it's sraight from the glaciers. You could drink out of a random stream there.

Spaniard here. I've been drinking unboiled tap water since I was a kid. It's perfectly safe to do that.

Even better, I do not boil I run though and store in a Brita pitcher that should have had a filter change six months ago!

Most people I know of don't drink from tap water here at all, boiled or not.

Edit: I forgot to share where I'm at lol (Indonesia)

One thing to consider: While tab water in most of the developed world is potable,any water safety guarantees usually end where the house water pipes begin. Depending on the state of the piping, tap water might not be safe, even if the water supplyer says it's safe.

You can get a water test (especially bacteria is important) for relatively cheap. Last time I did such a test it was ~€60. It's not wrong to do one.

Also, the definition of potable water is that the water is potable after the tap has been running for 10(!) minutes.

Bacteria contaminated pipes are pretty common and if the water has been sitting in these biofilm-covered pipes over night or even longer, the water can become pretty harmful. Especially after you get home from a vacation, letting the water run for a decent amount of time might be a good thing.

Also: the worst thing that can happen to your water pipe system are blind pipes, so pipes that are connected only on one end. That could be e.g. left-over plumbing after remodeling or pipes that lead to unused taps. If at all possible, these ahould be removed or flushed at best daily.

The further I searched, the more it seems to me that in developed countries (like US, Canada and the above examples), tap water is safe to drink directly. Is that true? Do you drink tap water without boiling?

Yes. It's a bit of a scandal when that's not true. (Canada here)

And to my surprise, I checked the Water Supplies Department website and notice it asserts that tap water in Hong Kong is potable, like many well-developed countries and regions.

Boiling it has to be "force of habit", then. I wonder how long it's been potable. I'm guessing mainland China is mostly boil-first.

Yes, living in the US, it's safe to assume that any tap water is safe to drink without boiling. Sometimes it doesn't taste great because of mineral content, but it's safe with very few exceptions.

That's also been the case in any developed country that I have visited, including Iceland, Canada, pretty much all of Europe, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, etc. There may be exceptions in all of those places, but in any large city in a developed country you can drink the tap water.

Not at all...where I live tap water isn't clean at all. It comes in a white colour with pression. And mining industry contaminated a lot

In Rome there are literally fountain running constantly in the middle of almost all the streets(old area specially ) of potable whater. Again non stop, people use them allot

I'm from Chile and we drink tap water without boiling. Some people buy filtered water because they dont like the taste, not because is unsafe.

It shocked me when I visited Peru and Mexico and realized that tap water is not safe there.

The US varies widely. Some Americans in this thread tell you their tap water is squeaky clean. Meanwhile, there are places like Flint where the tap water not only is deadly but remains deadly even if you do boil it.

Norway = Yes. But the fresh water pipes are in the same trench as the sewer pipes, and being 100 years old, the clean water depends on the pressure. This is in Oslo btw..

Italy here: tap water is drinkable BY LAW, at least inside houses and public places.

Moscow, Russia. You can usually drink tap water in Moscow, but it's something unusually good for Russian bigger cities in general, and it's considered a good thing to boil it. Actually depends on local specifics and where the water comes from.

Australian here. Yes, I regularly drink water from the tap without boiling it.

The only exception is if Sydney Water issue a "Boil water" alert. That usually only happens after really major flooding though.

German: Yes. Most of the water I consume comes straight from the tap

Important:

Despite the overall quality of the water in the region, the water pipes can ruin it. If you got lead pipes you should avoid drinking the water or using it for cooking. Boiling won't change it.

In Germany, landlords are legally required to tell you if there are lead pipes in your house, don't know about other countries. Typically, the risk of having lead pipes is higher if the house is older.

TL;DR: lead pipes are very bad

We drink straight from the tap here in Scotland. It's great water.

Venice: we filter it first via some cheal filters. It is very common to own a water mug with a filter embedded here.

Paris: directly from the tap water, though I don't like the taste.

Luxembourg here, i'll drink straight from the tap.

Quebec, Canada. I grew up in a rural area where we had our own artesian well on the plot of land, so not attached to any city infrastructure, and no purification process at all, except what is done naturally from the soil. And guess what? It's the purest water I've ever seen, it taste amazingly fresh and the tap is directly plugged on it.

Moved to a big city and now have to use the city infrastructure, which of course have a huge purification plant and they do tests continuously to make sure it pass a high quality threshold. But even if it's probably cleaner than 90% of the rest if the world, it still have a slight unpleasant taste. I could probably buy a filter, but never bothered.

Buying bottled water is seen as wasteful and also a scam since it's often just tap water they bottled. When my family visited a country where bttled water is common, they were disgusted at how much plastic pollution it creates.

I would hate to have to boil water before every usage, I assume you always keep a few gallons in the fridge to keep some cold? It takes space and energy to prepare, must be annoying. But what I wonder the most is, how to do wash yourselves and your clothes? If the water smells foul, doesn't taking a shower just stink you even more than it cleans?

German person here.

Tap water is very regulated here in Germany. It's legally classified as food. The community and your landlord are obliged to make sure the water stays within the regulations. You can also always contact the water company and have your water checked if it is within the regulations.

Usually it's absolutely save to drink directly from the tap if there isn't one of those. It may not always taste great, though.

In Canada most people drink water after filtering through a Brita, but it's safe to drink without.