site.btaHousehold Energy Consumption in EU and Bulgaria Goes Down in 2023

In 2023, households in the EU used 9.6 million terajoules of energy. This represents a decrease of 5.6% compared to 2022, when 10.1 million terajoules were recorded, according to the latest Eurostat data published Wednesday on the statistical agency’s website. The data shows a second consecutive year of decline after a record 11 million terajoules recorded in 2021.

In 2023 households in Bulgaria used 85,686 terajoules of energy, which represents a decrease of 4.2% compared to the 89,488 terajoules registered in 2022.

In 2023, EU households accounted for 26.2% of final energy consumption.

The majority of final energy consumption of households in the EU is covered by natural gas (29.5%), and electricity (25.9%). Renewable energy sources provided 23.5% of final consumption.

The largest share of energy used by households in the European Union in 2023 was from space heating, accounting for 62.5% of final energy consumption in the residential sector. The energy used for water heating came in second place in the household energy balance, at 15.1%.

This means that space and water heating therefore accounted for 77.6% of the final energy consumed by households in 2023.

Electricity used for lighting and powering electrical appliances accounted for 14.5% of households in the EU (and excluding electricity used to power basic heating, cooling or cooking systems).

Basic cooking appliances accounted for 6.5% of the energy used by households, while other consumers and space cooling accounted for 0.8% and 0.6% respectively.