European heating crisis deepens: 7 mln more people unable to stay warm in 2023

Brussels – Cold weather stings, and the Russian-Ukrainian war, with its energy implications and high utility bills, do the rest: the result is that Europeans are increasingly living without heating. In 2023, 10.6 percent of the European Union’s population could not keep their homes adequately warm, according to newly released Eurostat data. Compared to 2022, this is a 1.3 percentage point share increase. In absolute numbers, this translates into about six million more people — from 41.4 million to 47.5 million. — who are forced to wear an extra sweater since they cannot turn on the radiators.

In this picture, Italy is no exception. In 2023, over 5.6 million Italians were unable to keep their homes adequately warm. That is about half a million more men and women struggling with the cold than in 2022, with the share rising from 8.8 percent to 9.5 percent.

What is striking is the figure for Spain, a eurozone economy that the Italian government is watching with concern for its performance. The country that threatens Italy’s ranking among Europe’s leading economies sees one-fifth of its population struggling with heating issues. Over ten million Spaniards, or 20.8 percent of the national population, lived in cold or insufficiently heated homes in 2023.