Households across Europe used 9.54 million terajoules of energy during 2024, a slight decline (-0.2%) on the previous year, according to new figures from Eurostat.
The latest data indicates that household energy consumption has now been decreasing for three consecutive years, following an all-time peak of 10.98 million terajoules in 2021.
Energy consumption
The residential sector accounted for 26% of total final energy consumption across the EU in 2024, with natural gas remaining the largest source of household energy, accounting for 29.4% of consumption. Electricity represented 26.9%, while renewables and biofuels contributed 22.8%. Other energy sources made up the remainder of household consumption.
Heating of household spaces continued to dominate energy demand, accounting for more than three fifths (61.5%) of total energy use during the year, Eurostat noted. Water heating represented 15.6%, while lighting and electrical appliances accounted for 14.8%. Cooking made up 6.4% of consumption, with smaller shares attributed to space cooling (0.8%) and other household uses (0.9%).
Year on year
On a year-on-year basis, energy consumption for space heating declined by 1.2% compared with 2023, while energy used for cooking fell by 0.9%.
At the same time, however, energy use for space cooling increased significantly. Consumption for cooling rose by 15.3% during 2024, while energy use for lighting and electrical appliances also increased, rising by 2.6% compared with the previous year.
Eurostat noted that renewable electricity generated from sources such as wind, solar and hydropower is included within the electricity category rather than the renewables category. The renewables and biofuels category covers energy sources directly consumed by households, including firewood, wood pellets, biogas, solar thermal energy and heat captured through heat pumps. Read more here.
