Energy bills remain one of the heaviest lines in a household budget: between electricity, gas and heating, a sizable slice of family income each year goes just to keeping the lights on and the home warm. But how much do people actually spend elsewhere in the world, and who pays more? The answer comes from the International Energy Agency (IEA), whose Household Energy Expenditure Database compared domestic energy spending across 66 countries in 2025.
The ranking punctures a common assumption: expensive as they are, Italian bills are not the highest in the world, nor even in Europe. The figure examined is annual per-capita energy spending, meaning per individual person, and it covers electricity, gas, heating and other fuels used in the home, while excluding transport costs.
What emerges is a picture dominated by the Old Continent: 24 of the top 30 countries are European.
The countries with the highest energy bills
At the top of the table sit the countries of Northern Europe, where a harsh climate and the weight of taxes and levies on supply push spending upward. Sweden records the highest household energy spending in the world at 1,666 euros per person per year (roughly $1,800), followed by Finland at 1,544 euros per capita and Austria, which rounds out the podium at 1,478 euros a head.
Behind them come Denmark (1,369 euros), Germany (1,254 euros) and Switzerland (1,200 euros), confirming a central-northern bloc clearly above the average. Outside Europe, very few economies come close to the top: the United States, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Chile and Uruguay are the only ones to appear in the upper reaches of the ranking.
Here is the full ranking of the top 50 countries, based on IEA data.
| Rank | Country | Annual per-capita energy spending (2025) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sweden | €1,666 |
| 2 | Finland | €1,544 |
| 3 | Austria | €1,478 |
| 4 | Denmark | €1,369 |
| 5 | Germany | €1,254 |
| 6 | Switzerland | €1,200 |
| 7 | Czech Republic | €1,050 |
| 8 | France | €1,033 |
| 9 | Italy | €985 |
| 10 | Netherlands | €983 |
| 11 | Greenland | €979 |
| 12 | Norway | €974 |
| 13 | Luxembourg | €961 |
| 14 | Belgium | €957 |
| 15 | Ireland | €940 |
| 16 | United States | €901 |
| 17 | United Kingdom | €834 |
| 18 | Cyprus | €822 |
| 19 | Slovenia | €702 |
| 20 | Poland | €679 |
| 21 | Greece | €660 |
| 22 | Canada | €647 |
| 23 | Spain | €614 |
| 24 | Moldova | €601 |
| 25 | Lithuania | €598 |
| 26 | Japan | €590 |
| 27 | New Zealand | €583 |
| 28 | Croatia | €551 |
| 29 | Portugal | €547 |
| 30 | Slovakia | €513 |
| 31 | Chile | €507 |
| 32 | Serbia | €507 |
| 33 | Uruguay | €496 |
| 34 | Romania | €401 |
| 35 | North Macedonia | €390 |
| 36 | Botswana | €389 |
| 37 | Bulgaria | €384 |
| 38 | South Korea | €370 |
| 39 | Montenegro | €366 |
| 40 | Hungary | €326 |
| 41 | Singapore | €295 |
| 42 | Malta | €275 |
| 43 | Kosovo | €254 |
| 44 | Taiwan | €236 |
| 45 | Brazil | €221 |
| 46 | Albania | €213 |
| 47 | Costa Rica | €184 |
| 48 | Armenia | €173 |
| 49 | China | €149 |
| 50 | Philippines | €138 |
Where the US and other big economies land
The United States sits 16th, at 901 euros per capita (about $973 at current rates), below the central and northern European heavyweights but still firmly in the upper half of the table. Canada follows further down in 22nd place at 647 euros. In other words, American households spend meaningfully less on home energy than their counterparts in Sweden, Germany or France, a reflection of lower retail electricity and gas prices and a different tax structure.
Italy, for its part, comes in 9th at 985 euros per capita (roughly $1,064), a far-from-trivial figure that places the country among the most expensive in the world, though still below the big central-northern European economies such as Germany (1,254 euros) and France (1,033 euros). Italy effectively opens a tightly packed group of countries with very similar bills: the Netherlands (983 euros), Greenland (979 euros) and Norway (974 euros) sit right behind. The Italian bill is heavy, but it is not an outlier; it mirrors a condition shared by much of the continent. Notably, both the United States and Canada do better on this measure than Italy.
Why bills are higher in some countries
A household’s energy spending does not depend on the price of energy alone, but on a combination of factors whose weight varies by geography.
- Climate: in colder countries, heating absorbs much of domestic consumption, pushing spending higher.
- Income: higher incomes often translate into larger homes and greater consumption, air conditioning included.
- Retail prices: many European economies carry relatively high electricity and gas tariffs compared with the rest of the world.
- Taxation: in countries such as Sweden, Denmark and Belgium, taxes and levies weigh heavily on the final bill.
Even within Europe, spending varies considerably depending on the energy mix, the efficiency of buildings and the level of public support put in place by individual governments.
Where energy is cheapest
At the opposite end of the ranking, spending collapses. Among the top 50 countries, the cheapest bills are found in the Philippines (138 euros), China (149 euros), Armenia (173 euros), Costa Rica (184 euros) and Albania (213 euros). Looking at the full IEA analysis, which covers 66 countries, the lowest spending of all falls outside the top 50, in economies such as Bolivia, Algeria and Egypt.
A low bill, however, should not be confused with greater efficiency or a lighter hit to the cost of living: it often reflects lower incomes, limited access to modern energy services, smaller homes, warmer climates or simply lower prices for electricity and fuels at the source.
Editor’s note
This article was originally published in Italian on money.it by Emanuele Di Baldo on August 12, 2026 as «I Paesi con le bollette energetiche più care al mondo. Dov’è l’Italia?». It has been translated and adapted for an international audience by the Money.it International desk.
