Cheapest places in Europe for electricity prices
Amongst the many things that Europe has to offer, it also has a very different infrastructure for energy. Many countries outside of Europe, such as United States, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Australia have huge energy consumptions, whereas in Europe, we are encouraged to reduce the amount that we use, which is further enforced by energy being quite a bit more expensive. If you are thinking about moving to Europe, or maybe you’re just interested in finding out more, you should perhaps think about which countries are the cheapest and the most expensive.
How much do electricity do countries use?
Across the European Union, the average electricity usage stands at around 5,909 kWh per year, whereas in Northern America it stands at an incredible 13,243 kWh . Already we can see the extreme difference in consumptions, especially when we look at such popular destinations as the United Kingdom, which uses an average of 3,100 kWh and France, with 4,670 kWh.
This usage difference could perhaps be due to the lack of weather extremes in most of the continent. Extreme heat and cold can seriously rack up your electricity usage in temperature control. Countries like Canada with average winter temperatures exceeding that of -20 degrees celsius means constant reliance on central heating and other heating methods.
Obviously, the amount of electricity that is used in each country on average will give an indication as to how much you will use, and therefore how cheap your bills will be. Usage is one of the most important factors when we think about worldwide energy bills. This is, after, all what your unit rate is timesed by to get your bill amount.
The cheapest countries by price
Unfortunately, many of the top ten cheapest countries have some of the lowest average salaries too. This is surely no coincidence, as the wage representation of electricity bills seems to keep to a very limited range throughout the many countries in the continent. In order of more expensive to cheapest, here’s the top 5 cheapest countries for electricity in Europe:
- Malta – €382.50 per year
- Lithuania – €372.28 per year
- Estonia – €367.44 per year
- Hungary – €336.85 per year
- Bulgaria – €291.49 per year
(based on 3,100 kWh usage)
Even though many of these countries have pretty low incomes, there are still some pretty desirable locations that have above-average incomes. These electricity prices would apply to you, for example, if you lived in Budapest, Sofia or Malta.
The most expensive countries by price
So, on the other hand, we have the more expensive countries, which, as you could probably guess, have some of the higher average salaries. This is not the case, however, in #5, which is a quite bizarre case and is causing some pretty devastating personal finance situations. You may be surprised to see the omittance of high-earners such as United Kingdom, France, Holland and Sweden, but not so surprised to see the first three. In order of cheapest to most expensive, here are the top 5 most expensive european electricity prices:
- Portugal – €712.43 per year
- Italy – €730.59 per year
- Belgium – €769.54 per year
- Germany – €900.14 per year
- Denmark – €936.42 per year
(based on 3,100 kWh usage)
As we can see above, Denmark’s electricity bills are over three times more than those of Bulgaria. To say that these countries are within the same continent, it’s quite surprising just how different their prices are. That said, Denmark’s average national wage is also the highest in Europe, lying currently at around €37,140 per year (€3,095 per month).
All statistics were sourced from selectra.co.uk
