Energy Poverty Statistics Ireland 2026: Cold Homes, Heating Costs and Who Is Affected

Last updated: September 2026. Human written and fact checked against each named source.

Irish households paid the highest electricity prices in the EU in the second half of 2025, yet the share of people who cannot afford to keep their home warm has been falling for two years. This page gathers the current energy poverty and home heating figures for Ireland in one place: who cannot afford heat, how Ireland compares with the EU, what electricity and heating fuels cost, and what the State spends in response. Every figure links to the CSO, Eurostat, ESRI or SEAI source it came from, and it is written for journalists, researchers, advocacy groups and homeowners who need a number they can cite. It sits alongside our home insulation statistics, Dublin BER statistics and SEAI grant statistics.

Key Energy Poverty Statistics for Ireland at a Glance

• 4.5% of people in Ireland were unable to afford to keep their home adequately warm in 2025, down from 4.9% in 2024. Source: CSO SILC Enforced Deprivation 2025
• 7.5% went without heating at some stage in the previous year through lack of money, down from 8.2% in 2024. Source: CSO SILC 2025
• 14% of Irish households in 2024 said they were unable to afford adequate warmth or pay energy bills in full, and 30% experienced some form of energy affordability challenge. Source: ESRI research reported by RTÉ, April 2026
• Irish households paid €0.4042 per kWh for electricity in the second half of 2025, the highest in the EU and 40% above the EU average of €0.2896 (calculated). Source: Eurostat nrg_pc_204
• People in rented or rent free accommodation were more than four times as likely to go without heating as owner occupiers: 16.5% against 3.5%. Source: CSO SILC 2025
• One in four people (24.0%) in single adult households with children went without heating through lack of money in 2025. Source: CSO SILC 2025
• Ireland’s 4.5% rate for inability to keep the home warm compares with an EU average of 8.8% in 2025. Source: Eurostat ilc_mdes01
• 8,100 homes in energy poverty received fully funded upgrades in 2025, backed by more than €230 million. Source: SEAI, August 2026
• The ESRI estimates households in fuel poverty would need an average of €480 in extra income a year to exit it, at a State cost of €370 million a year. Source: ESRI reported by RTÉ, April 2026
• Only 2% of oil heated homes with a BER are A rated, and 39% of the small number of coal heated homes are G rated. Source: CSO, Domestic Building Energy Ratings Q1 2026

How Many People Cannot Afford to Keep Warm

The CSO’s Survey on Income and Living Conditions tracks two heat related deprivation items every year. In the revised 2025 results, 4.5% of people were unable to afford to keep their home adequately warm, down from 4.9% in 2024, and 7.5% had gone without heating at some stage in the previous 12 months through lack of money, down from 8.2%, per the CSO SILC Enforced Deprivation 2025 release. Both rates spiked during the 2022 and 2023 energy price shock and have fallen for two consecutive years, though the CSO notes they remain above their 2021 levels. Going without heating has seen the largest five year improvement of any deprivation item, from 8.8% in 2020 to 7.5% in 2025. Households also still carry the financial strain: 8.3% failed to pay a utility bill on time in 2025, and 6.4% of households made ends meet only with great difficulty, per the same release.

Survey measures capture only part of the problem. ESRI research published in April 2026 found that 14% of Irish households in 2024 were unable to afford adequate warmth or pay their energy bills in full, well below the 25% recorded during the financial crisis that began in 2008, and that 30% of households experienced some form of energy affordability challenge when multiple measures are combined, per the ESRI report as reported by RTÉ.

Who Is Hit Hardest

The averages hide steep differences. By tenure, 16.5% of people living in rented or rent free accommodation went without heating at some point in 2025, more than four times the 3.5% rate for owner occupiers, per the CSO SILC 2025 deprivation items chapter.

By household type, people in single adult households with children fare worst: 24.0% went without heating through lack of money and 12.5% could not keep the home adequately warm, against 2.4% for households of three or more adults. By economic status, 13.9% of unemployed people and 13.5% of those unable to work due to long standing health problems could not keep their home warm, and one in five unemployed people (20.1%) went without heating, compared with 5.1% of employed people and 3.7% of retired people. The table below gathers the published rates from the same CSO release.

Where a cell reads “not published in chapter”, the CSO’s release text does not quote that combination directly; the full breakdowns are in tables 2.7 and 2.8 of the deprivation items chapter.

Cold homes are also damp homes: 21.2% of people in Ireland live with leaks, damp or rot, per our damp and mould statistics for Ireland.

Ireland Against the EU

Eurostat carries the “unable to keep home adequately warm” indicator for every member state, and its Irish figure matches the CSO’s at 4.5% for 2025, against an EU27 average of 8.8%. Ireland’s rate peaked at 7.2% in 2023 before falling to 4.9% in 2024 and 4.5% in 2025. The highest 2025 rates were in Greece (18.1%), Lithuania (16.7%) and Bulgaria (16.1%), and the lowest in Finland (2.6%), per the Eurostat dataset ilc_mdes01, updated June 2026. On this single measure Ireland performs well; the ESRI’s broader affordability measures above show why the ranking flatters the underlying strain.

The Most Expensive Electricity in the EU

Price is the pressure behind the affordability numbers. Irish households in the standard consumption band paid €0.4042 per kWh for electricity including all taxes in the second half of 2025, the highest rate in the EU, ahead of Germany (€0.3869) and Belgium (€0.3499) and 40% above the EU average of €0.2896 (calculated), per the Eurostat dataset nrg_pc_204, updated August 2026. The Irish price rose sharply within the year, from €0.3231 in the first half of 2025. For a household in the middle of that consumption band, using 3,750 kWh a year, the gap between Irish and EU average prices is worth about €430 a year (calculated from the same dataset).

Structural exposure sits underneath: 78.2% of Ireland’s energy requirement was met by imports in 2025 against an EU average of 57.3%, per the SEAI energy data note of July 2026. Between 2022 and 2025 the State paid every domestic electricity customer €1,500 in bill credits across nine payments to blunt the price shock, per the SEAI energy price statistics.

Heating Fuels and Cold Homes

What a home burns is tightly linked to how cold it is. Mains gas and heating oil each heat 34% of BER rated Irish dwellings, with electricity at 25%, per the CSO Domestic Building Energy Ratings Q1 2026. Only 2% of oil heated rated homes achieve an A rating, against 8% of gas heated homes and 53% of homes heated mainly by electricity. Coal is now rare, but 39% of the coal heated homes on the register are G rated, the coldest band on the scale. At the other end, 59% of homes on group or district heating and 53% of electrically heated homes are A rated, per the same release. Heating oil dominates precisely where incomes are most stretched: it is the main fuel in 72% of rated homes in Donegal, 67% across the Border region and 60% in the West. Our Dublin BER statistics show the same fuel and rating patterns postcode by postcode in the capital.

Only 15% of rated Irish homes have a heat pump; our heat pump statistics show where they are and where they are not.

What the State Spends in Response

The Warmer Homes scheme is the targeted arm of the response: 8,100 homes in energy poverty received fully funded energy upgrades in 2025, backed by more than €230 million, up from more than 7,700 homes in 2024, per the SEAI, August 2026 and its review of 2024.

The ESRI’s analysis argues targeting beats universality. It estimates that lifting affected households out of fuel poverty would take an average of €480 in additional income per household per year, costing the State about €370 million annually, notably less than the up to €575 million spent on universal electricity credits in 2024, per the ESRI as reported by RTÉ, April 2026. The current grant supports for households outside the fully funded scheme are tracked in our SEAI grant statistics.

The Insulation Dimension

Energy poverty is a price and income problem, but the size of the bill is set by the building. SEAI guidance puts up to 30% of a home’s heat loss through poorly insulated roofs and walls, about 10% through windows and doors and up to 10% through uninsulated floors, and estimates savings of up to €600 a year from well insulated walls and attic space, per the SEAI insulation guide. One in three BER rated Irish homes is still rated D1 or worse (calculated from the CSO Q1 2026 BER release), and our home insulation statistics set out the full retrofit picture. At the EU’s highest electricity prices, every kilowatt hour a home does not need is worth more in Ireland than anywhere else in the Union.

What to Watch Next

Three releases will move these figures. The CSO publishes SILC 2026 in early December, the first survey to fully capture the 2026 price environment. Eurostat publishes the next electricity price semester in spring 2027, which will show whether Ireland holds the EU’s most expensive electricity. And the Government’s National Energy Affordability Taskforce, established in 2026, is due to produce an Energy Affordability Action Plan covering both short term supports and the longer term structural fixes, per the Ministerial statement of April 2026. Budget 2027 in October 2026 may also change electricity credits and grant levels. This page will be refreshed on each of those events.