Household energy consumption decreased again in 2023

In 2023, EU households used 9.6 million terajoules of energy. Compared with 2022, this represents a 5.6% decrease from the 10.1 million terajoules recorded. It was the second consecutive annual decline, following the all-time peak registered in 2021. A very similar trend was observed in the region. In 2023, household energy use dropped by 4.9%, while in 2022 the decline reached 8%. Significantly less energy was used for space heating, which may suggest milder winter conditions or improved building efficiency. The main use of energy by EU households was for heating homes (62.5% of the final energy consumption in the residential sector), followed by water heating (15.1%). The heating of space and water consequently represented 77.6% of the final energy consumed by households in 2023. Energy consumption also decreased in other categories, although the picture is more mixed across countries. For example, in the case of space cooling, lighting, and electrical appliances, some countries saw a decline in 2023, while others did not. These two categories have a much lower share in energy consumption by households. Finally, most of the EUs final energy consumption in households was covered by natural gas (29.5%), electricity (25.9%) and renewables and biofuels (23.5%).