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Please check back in January 2025 for updated statistics!
Tell The Story With Data
Data is key to supporting your advocacy efforts on National Energy Assistance Day. Data helps quantify the magnitude of issues surrounding LIHEAP and energy affordability. Use the below data, or your own state or local data, to demonstrate the need for energy assistance and the impact it has on your community.
Download individual charts from this page to incorporate into your materials for Energy Assistance Day. Or use the state data tables (here) to find more specific information for your area.
The data are broken down into the following four sections: The Need for Energy Assistance, Utility Arrears, Winter Heating Expenditures, and The Impact of LIHEAP.
The Need for Energy Assistance
Energy Burdens
The Census Household Pulse Survey has been collecting data on the social and economic effects of the coronavirus on US households. The Pulse Survey covers numerous topics including three questions related to energy burden and hardship:
- Household was unable to pay an energy bill or pay the full amount
- Household reduced or forewent expenses for basic household necessities, such as medicine or food, in order to pay an energy bill
- Household kept home at a temperature that felt unsafe or unhealthy
The following charts show the percentage of households that experienced any of these hardships for one month or more in the last year.
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Utility Arrearages
Since the beginning of the pandemic, NEADA has been tracking utility arrearages (household debt to utilities) using data from a select number of states that report the figures publicly. As of September 2023, arrears have risen to $19.1 billion with almost 21 million households (16.5% of all households) owing $13.6 billion to electric utilities and 14.2 million households owing $5.5 billion to natural gas companies. National arrears have grown by 23.5% since January 2022.
Winter Heating Expenditures
According to estimates made by NEADA, household winter heating costs will fall in 2024, with the average household paying $868, down 9.5% from the previous winter. Even with this welcome reduction, winter heating costs are still significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels, and heating during the winter of 2023-2024 is predicted to cost families 16.5% more than the winter of 2020-2021.
The Impact of LIHEAP
The average cost of home heating has increased 24.5% since the start of the pandemic. LIHEAP, the federal program to help with residential energy costs, only has enough funding to serve 1 in 6 eligible households.
In 2023 LIHEAP served 7.2 million households received energy assistance through LIHEAP.