Insee Analyses · April 2025 · n° 106

Nearly 5 million households in housing-related energy vulnerability in 2021

In 2021, in metropolitan France, 17.4% of households were in housing-related energy vulnerability. These almost 5 million households were to devote a particularly high proportion of their income to energy expenditure, compared with other households, if they were to ensure standard energetic comfort in their homes. These results come from an original pairing carried out by Insee between administrative data and energy performance certificates. They show that low-income households, as well as those living in poorly insulated homes with inefficient heating systems, were particularly affected by energy vulnerability. Half of energy-vulnerable households were single people aged over 60. Household vulnerability rates varied widely across territories, depending not only on climate, but also on degree of urbanisation and residents' incomes. Rural areas, where the housing stock is organized around individual dwellings, often of large surface, and where domestic fuel oil is still frequently used, generally had higher rates of energy vulnerability. In non-periurban rural areas, low incomes and inadequately insulated housing often combine.