At the same time, our global presence allowed us to capture the benefits of early recovery in places like China, which grew 18% in the quarter; and also in Europe, where we grew 6%.
They're up 16% overall, and up 30% shippable in 2022 and beyond.
The team corrected for the volatile conditions so quickly that, in fact, we delivered free cash flow conversion north of 180%.
Fourth-quarter revenue growth was down 2% organically versus the same period last year.
But in short, utilities and industrial were both down 3%.
Commercial was flat and residential was up 15%.
Organic orders were down 1% in the quarter as we delivered a second consecutive quarter of sequential orders improvement.
Fourth-quarter operating margin and EBITDA margin of 13.8% and 18.8%, respectively, are above our forecasted range.
Our earnings per share in the quarter was $0.81 due to higher-than-forecasted revenue and earnings and from a lower tax rate due to favorable jurisdictional mix.
Water Infrastructure orders in the fourth quarter were down 16% organically versus last year.
Notably, treatment was up 10% as wastewater utility capex budgets continue to show resilience globally.
Operating margin and EBITDA margin for the segment were down a modest 60 to 70 basis points, respectively.
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Revenue declined 1% in the quarter.
Segment operating margin and EBITDA margin declined 90 and 170 basis points, respectively.
In M&CS, orders returned to growth in the quarter, up 13% organically.
From the mid-teen declines we experienced in the second and third quarters, this quarter we finished the quarter down 5%.
And Europe grew double digits from demand in the test business and from the start of the Anglian Water metrology project in the U.K. Segment operating income and EBITDA margins in the quarter were down 330 and 350 basis points, respectively.
We grew free cash flow by 5% for the full year, exceeding our pre-pandemic free cash flow outlook, and delivered free cash flow conversion of 181%.
In the difficult operating environment of 2020, they took that work another step forward, finishing at 17.6% of revenue.
This is a 40 basis point improvement year on year, excluding foreign exchange impacts, and reflects the team's progress in managing inventories and driving solid improvements in accounts receivable collections.
Our balance sheet is well positioned and includes a $1.9 billion cash balance.
As a reminder, we'll take advantage of our cash position to repay one of our senior notes amounting to $600 million in the fourth quarter.
And lastly, we announced an annual dividend increase of 8%.
Backlog in our advanced digital solutions grew 70% year on year.
With the current cash balance of nearly $1.9 billion, capital deployment is clearly top of mind for us.
We remain disciplined about valuations, but we do see opportunity for additional investments over the next 18 months.
We anticipate our utility business overall, which is just north of 50% of Xylem revenues, will grow in the low to mid-single digits in 2021.
For Xylem overall, we foresee full-year 2021 organic revenue growth in the range of 3% to 5%.
For 2021, we expect adjusted EBITDA to be up 40 to 140 basis points to a range of 16.7% to 17.7%.
For your convenience, we're also providing the equivalent adjusted operating margin here, which we expect to be in the range of 11.5% to 12.5%, up 70 to 170 basis points.
This yields an adjusted earnings per share range of $2.35 to $2.60, an increase of 14% to 26%.
Free cash flow conversion is expected to be in the range of 80% to 90%, following free cash flow conversion of 181% in 2020 and 124% in 2019.
We believe this is purely a dynamic related to 2021, and we expect to drive 100% cash conversion in 2022 and beyond.
We're assuming a euro to dollar conversion rate of 1.22.
Now drilling down on the first quarter, we anticipate that total company organic revenues will grow in the range of 1% to 3%.
We expect first quarter adjusted EBITDA margin to be in the range of 14% to 15%, representing 170 to 270 basis points of expansion versus the prior year, with the largest expansion coming from M&CS due to operational improvements and a prior year warranty charge.

Summary:
Our earnings per share in the quarter was $0.81 due to higher-than-forecasted revenue and earnings and from a lower tax rate due to favorable jurisdictional mix.
And lastly, we announced an annual dividend increase of 8%.
This yields an adjusted earnings per share range of $2.35 to $2.60, an increase of 14% to 26%.