In 2017, the last full year before Pedro Sánchez became president of the government, only 8% of the Spanish population admitted that they could not keep their homes at an adequate temperature during the winter. In 2024, this proportion will be around 18%, almost double. That’s to say, one in five families is cold in their own home.
The data comes from Eurostat, which asks European households every year whether they can keep their homes warm.
The indicator does not measure how many heaters are on, but rather who can afford it without having to give up other basic needs like food or paying rent. In practice, this reflects the degree to which energy is affordable for the population.
If we analyze the last decade, between 2015 and 2019, the trend has been relatively stable. The rate varied between 7.5% and 10.6% and Spain was below the European average.
The minimum was recorded just before the pandemic, when only 7.5% of households recognized difficulties in heating their homes.
From 2020, the curve changes direction. The economic crisis caused by Covid-19 This has reduced the disposable income of many households, particularly those of precarious and self-employed workers.
The restrictions and the drop in employment translated with less income and more time at homewhich has increased energy consumption without aid reaching the entire population.
In 2021, the recovery is still fragile and energy inflation is starting to be felt: the cost of kilowatt hours and domestic fuels is starting to increase sharply.
A year later, Ukraine invasion sparks Europe’s worst gas crisis since the 1970s. The instantaneous increase in the price of this raw material was reflected in the electricity bill.
Eurostat statistics clearly show this evolution: 10.9% in 2020, 14.2% in 2021, 17.1% in 2022 and a historic peak of 20.8% in 2023, before a slight correction to 17.5% in 2024.
Moderation took place thanks to the partial drop in energy prices.
The thermal inefficiency of the building stock, With millions of dilapidated and poorly insulated buildings, this compounds the problem: heating an inefficient home costs between 25% and 40% more.
Job insecurity also weighs. Households with irregular income cannot plan stable energy expenses; many prefer to live with a low thermostat or avoid unpayable bills.
In recent years, even with relief measures —like the Iberian ceiling on gas or social bonuses for electricity—, a good part of the beneficiaries do not meet the conditions to apply or are not registered in the system.
The sum of all this explains that, despite the recent moderation of prices, the rate of energy poverty remains at levels well above those before the pandemic.
Spain versus Europe
Spain is doing poorly compared to Europe. In 2015, our country was slightly below the community average. Ten years later, it is one of the states where the percentage of the population who cannot heat their home is the highest.
The European Union average is around 9%, less than half that of Spain.
Only a few countries show similar or even worse figures. Bulgaria and Greece are around 19%, while Lithuania is close to 18%. Romania and Portugal exceed 15%.
Basically, Finland, Poland, Slovenia or Luxembourg they barely reach 3%. These are countries where housing is better insulated, social protection networks are more automatic and where the weight of the energy bill on family income is much lower.
Financial effort
The trajectory of financial effort for housing It is much more moderate and, in the Spanish case, suggests a slight improvement. Since Sánchez’s arrival at Moncloa there has been a reduction of 2 points.
Between 2015 and 2017, the housing overload rate increased from 10.3% to 8.8%. It fell a little more between 2018 and 2020, it rebounded in 2021 and 2022 and fell again in 2023 and 2024.
The balance since 2015 is a drop of more than two percentage points in the percentage of the population that exceeds the threshold of 40% of its income allocated to housing.
This development is explained by a combination of factors. For much of the decade, historically low interest rates have reduced the monthly burden on mortgage holders, which has directly eased homeowners’ stress levels.
At the same time, average income increased moderately — particularly due to the recovery in employment after the pandemic — which has reduced, in statistical terms, the weight of housing expenses on income.
They added to this specific protective measures during the Covid-19 years, such as mortgage moratoriums, rent freezes and temporary aid which contained evictions and partly moderated the effort of the most vulnerable households.
However, this relief was not general. As the owners’ efforts diminished, access to rent has become more difficult, especially in big cities, where prices have risen much faster than wages.
In the EU, the average housing overload rate is around 8.2%slightly above the Spanish 7.8%. Therefore, the figures place Spain in the middle-lower part of the table for this indicator.
Greece remains the extreme case, with nearly three in ten people living in households that spend 40% or more of their income on housing.
Denmark and Germany They operate in a range between 12 and 15%, also well above Spain.
At the other extreme are Cyprus, Croatia or Slovenia, where only between 2% and 4% of the population crosses this critical threshold.
About The Author
