In 2018, 7% of the European Union (EU) population said in an EU-wide survey that they could not afford to heat their home sufficiently.
According to Eurostat figures, this share peaked in 2012 (11%), when the continent was immersed in the financial and economic crisis, and has fallen continuously in subsequent years.
The situation in the EU Member States varies. The largest share of people who said that they could not afford to keep their home adequately warm was recorded in Bulgaria (33.7%), followed by Lithuania (27.9%), Greece (22.7 %), Cyprus (21.9%), Portugal (19.4%) and Italy (14.1%).
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In contrast, the lowest shares (around 2%) were recorded in Austria (1.6%), Finland (1.7%), Luxembourg (2.1%), the Netherlands (2.2%), Estonia (2.3%) and Sweden (2.3%).
In the last year of which there are statistics, the percentage of people who could not heat their homes fell in Finland and Estonia, but increased in Sweden and Denmark.
The data were collected as part of the annual EU survey on income and living conditions.
