EU sees 9.3% of population unable to heat homes in 2022
Nine point three percent of the EU population declared they could not manage to adequately heat their homes last year – up 2.4 percentage points from the level in the previous year, Eurostat reported on September 11.
The increase came amid soaring natural gas prices, largely caused by Russia's drastic cuts to gas pipeline supply in the months that followed its invasion of Ukraine.
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Eurostat noted that the situation varied from country to country. Bulgaria, which had its Russian gas supply completely cut off in April last year, had the highest share of people unable to keep their homes sufficiently warm – 22.5%. In second place was Cyprus (19.2%), followed by Greece (18.7%), Lithuania and Portugal (both 17.5%), Spain (17.1%) and Romania (15.2%).
Those countries with the most adequately heated homes were Finland (1.4%), Luxembourg (2.1%), Slovenia (2.6%), Austria (2.7%), Czechia (2.9%), Sweden (3.3%) and Estonia (3.4%).
While many governments put in place measures to reduce the burden of the energy crisis on households, prices inevitably still increased. Average household gas prices in the EU came to €11.4/100 kWh in the second half of 2022, up from €7.8 in the same period of the previous year, while electricity prices climbed to €28.4/kWh, from €23.5.
Inability to keep home adequately warm, 2022 (% of total population)
