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Statistics Explained

Data extracted in June 2025

Planned article update: June 2026

Energy consumption in households

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Data extracted in June 2025

Planned article update: June 2026

Highlights

In 2023, Households, or the residential sector, represented 26.2% of final energy consumption in the EU.

In 2023, natural gas accounted for 29.5% of the EU final energy consumption in households, electricity - 25.9%, renewables and wastes - 23.5%, oil & petroleum products - 10.3% and derived heat - 8.5%. A small proportion - 2.2% - was made up of coal products (solid fossil fuels).

The main use of energy by households in the EU in 2023 was for heating their homes (62.5% of final energy consumption in the residential sector), with renewables accounting for more than a quarter (33.0%) of EU households space heating consumption.

Doughnut chart showing percentage final energy consumption in households by energy use, namely space heating, space cooling, water heating, cooking, lighting and electrical appliances and other end uses in the EU for the year 2023.
Source: Eurostat (nrg_d_hhq)


Households use energy for various purposes: space and water heating, space cooling, cooking, lighting and electrical appliances and other end-uses (mainly covering uses of energy by households outside the dwellings themselves). Data on the energy consumption of households broken down by end-use, have been collected and published by Eurostat since 2017.
In 2023, households, or the residential sector, represented 26.2% of final energy consumption in the EU.


Energy products used in the residential sector

In 2023, most of the EU final energy consumption in the residential sector was covered by natural gas (29.5%) and electricity (25.9%). Renewables accounted for 23.5%, followed by petroleum products (10.3%) and derived heat (8.5%). A small proportion was still covered by coal products (solid fossil fuels) (2.2%), see Figure 1.

Pie chart showing final energy consumption in the residential sector by fuel type as percentages in the EU for the year 2023.
Figure 1: Final energy consumption in the residential sector by fuel, 2023
Source: Eurostat (nrg_bal_c)

In 2023, the Netherlands (62.32%), Italy (46.70%), Hungary (46.43%) and Luxembourg (45.29%) relied more than 45% on natural gas for meeting their needs in the residential sector. Malta (75.42%), Bulgaria (51.73%) and Sweden (48.24%) mostly rely on electricity. Croatia (44.90%), Latvia (40.57%), Slovenia (40.01%) and Estonia (39.45%) mainly use renewables and biofuels. Households in Ireland sourced (41.72%) of their energy from petroleum products, Polish households sourced 20.61% of their energy from solid fossil fuels. Denmark relied mainly on derived heat, see Table 1.

Table showing the percentage share of fuels in the final energy consumption of the residential sector in 2023 in the EU, individual EU Member States and some of the EFTA countries, candidate countries and potential candidates. The columns show natural gas, electricity, renewables and biofuels, oil and petroleum products, peat and peat fuels, heat and solid fossil fuels.
Table 1: Share of fuels in the final energy consumption in the residential sector, 2023
Source: Eurostat (nrg_bal_c)

Energy consumption in households by type of end-use

For 2023, in the EU, the main use of energy by households was for heating homes (62.5% of final energy consumption in the residential sector), see Table 2. Electricity used for lighting and most electrical appliances represented 14.5% (this excludes the use of electricity for powering the main heating, cooling or cooking systems), while the proportion used for water heating was slightly higher, representing 15.1%. Main cooking devices required 6.5% of the energy used by households, while space cooling and other end-uses covered 0.6% and 0.8% respectively. Heating of space and water represented 77.6% of the final energy consumed by households.

Table showing the percentage share of fuels in the final energy consumption of the residential sector by type of end-use for 2023 in the EU. For each fuel type, namely, natural gas, electricity, renewables and biofuels, oil and petroleum, heat and solid fossil fuels, the columns show energy use, space heating, space cooling, water heating, cooking, lighting and electrical appliances and other end uses.
Table 2: Share of fuels in the final energy consumption of the residential sector by type of end-use, EU, 2023
Source: Eurostat (nrg_d_hhq)


The lowest proportions of energy used for space heating were observed in Malta (22.0%), Portugal (32.2%) and Cyprus (33.5%), and the highest in Luxembourg (79.3%), Estonia (71.0%), Belgium (70.8%), Hungary (69.4%) (see Table 3).

Table showing the percentage share of final energy consumption in the residential sector by type of end-use in the EU, euro area, individual EU Member States and some of the EFTA countries, candidate countries and potential candidates. The columns show space heating, space cooling, water heating, cooking, lighting and electrical appliances and other end uses for the year 2023.
Table 3: Share of final energy consumption in the residential sector by type of end-use, 2023
Source: Eurostat (nrg_d_hhq)
Stacked vertical bar chart showing final energy consumption in the residential sector by use as terajoules in the EU. Six columns totaling 100 percent represent space heating, space cooling, water heating, cooking, lighting and electrical appliances and other end uses. Each column has six stacks for each fuel type as terajoules, namely, natural gas, electricity, renewables and biofuels, oil and petroleum, heat and solid fossil fuels for the year 2023.
Figure 3: Final energy consumption in the residential sector by use, EU, 2023
Source: Eurostat (nrg_d_hhq)

Use of energy products in households by purpose

As depicted in Figure 3 and in Table 2, electricity covers 100% of the energy needs for lighting and space cooling in the EU but also 51.6% for cooking (Table 6). Natural gas plays an essential role in terms of space and water heating of the energy consumed for these end-uses (respectively 34.3% and 39.02% - Table 4 and 5) and in cooking (32.8%, Table 6). Renewables cover 33.0% of the energy needs for space heating, 16.2% for water heating and 4.7% for cooking (Table 4, 5 and 6). Derived heat plays an important role only in water heating (14.4%, Table 5) and in space heating (10.1%, Table 4). Oil product's energy use still cover 12.7% of space heating energy use, 10.8% of cooking and 10.3% of water heating (Table 4, 6 and 5).

Use of energy products in households: space heating

Five out of 27 EU countries sourced more than 54% of the energy needed for heating their homes from renewable energies. These were Portugal (88.20%), Croatia (63.60%), Bulgaria (60.20%), Slovenia (56.80%), Romania (54.30%). The Netherlands (72.90%), Hungary (53.60%) and Italy (53.50%) were the EU countries where the proportion of gas used for space heating was the highest. 3 EU countries used mainly petroleum products for space heating: Cyprus (60.30%), Ireland (56.20%) and Greece (40.90%). Finally, 2 EU countries mostly relied on derived heat, Sweden (51.00%) and Denmark (41.20%), and one EU country (Poland) used mainly solid fuels for space heating (29.90%) (see Table 4).

Table showing percentage share of fuels in the final energy consumption of the residential sector for space heating in the EU, euro area, individual EU Member States and some of the EFTA countries, candidate countries and potential candidates. The columns show six fuel types, namely, natural gas, electricity, renewables and biofuels, oil and petroleum, heat and solid fossil fuels for the year 2023.
Table 4: Share of fuels in the final energy consumption of the residential sector for space heating, 2023 
Source: Eurostat (nrg_d_hhq)

Use of energy products in households: water heating

Derived heat was widely used, covering more than 50% of the needs, for water heating in 4 EU countries, in Denmark (66.04%), Estonia (60.30%), Sweden (56.8%) and Finland (55.6%). Natural gas was used mostly in the Netherlands (87.60%) and in Luxembourg (61.50%). In addition, Malta (88.8%), Bulgaria (62.7%), Croatia (44.7%), France (42.1%) used mostly electricity. Ireland and Portugal used mainly petroleum products (47.0% and 39.02% respectively), while Cyprus (81.1%), Greece (52.1%) used mostly renewables (see Table 5).

Table showing percentage share of fuels in the final energy consumption of the residential sector for water heating in the EU, euro area, individual EU Member States and some of the EFTA countries, candidate countries and potential candidates. The columns show six fuel types, namely, natural gas, electricity, renewables and biofuels, oil and petroleum, heat and solid fossil fuels for the year 2023.
Table 5: Share of fuels in the final energy consumption of the residential sector for water heating, 2023 
Source: Eurostat (nrg_d_hhq)

Use of energy products in households: cooking

Cooking was generally based on the use of electricity (more than 50% of the needs in 15 EU countries) and natural gas (more than 50% in 6 EU countries) with only Malta and Cyprus using petroleum products for that purpose (74.1% and 63.2% respectively) (see Table 6).

Table showing percentage share of fuels in the final energy consumption of the residential sector for cooking in the EU, euro area, individual EU Member States and some of the EFTA countries, candidate countries and potential candidates. The columns show six fuel types, namely, natural gas, electricity, renewables and biofuels, oil and petroleum, heat and solid fossil fuels for the year 2023.
Table 6: Share of fuels in the final energy consumption in the residential sector for cooking 2023
Source: Eurostat (nrg_d_hhq)

Source data for tables and graphs

Excel Energy consumption households data 2023

Data sources

The collection of data on energy consumption in households by type of end-use is based on the Regulation (EC) No 1099/2008 on energy statistics as amended by Commission Regulation (EU) No 2146/2019. The provision of historical series up to 2010 is made on a voluntary basis. Mandatory reporting starts with reference year 2015.

Context

Further disaggregation of the statistics on final energy consumption is crucial for policy makers to monitor and further develop energy policies. The first sector where this disaggregation was completed and implemented is the residential (or households) sector, followed by the industry sector. Detailed data of the final energy consumption in industry will be available from August 2022 (mandatory reporting starts with reference year 2020). Eurostat has established in the latest amendment of Regulation (EC) No 1099/2008 on Energy Statistics the breaking down of final energy consumption in other sectors, namely services and transport activities.

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