The United States Geological Survey has compiled data on water use in this country every fifth year since 1950. This document is the most recent of this series and presents data on water withdrawn for use in the United States in 1975. In the introduction, recent and present water use studies are discussed along with a description of the terminology involved. Withdrawal uses, discussed in the second section, involve withdrawal for public supplies, rural uses, irrigation, self-supplied industrial water, thermoelectric power, and hydroelectric power. Also in this section, a summary of off-channel water withdrawals and consumption is given. Other sections of this publication discuss non-withdrawal uses; trends in water use over 25 years; supply compared with cumulative, off-channel water withdrawals; and a bibliography. Data for this study were compiled from 407 areas using federal, state, and local information sources. Many tables and figures are used to help summarize the data and support the text. The last half of this document consists of 14 tables compiling the data for water use not covered in detail in the text. (MR)