Heating dominates Latvia’s household energy use — while most homes remain untouched by insulation upgrades

Heating and hot water accounted for 83.9% of all energy consumed by Latvian households in 2025, underlining how strongly household energy costs still depend on the efficiency of buildings and heating systems.

The latest five-year household energy survey from Latvia’s Central Statistical Bureau shows that average electricity consumption changed little: households used 178 kWh per month, just 3 kWh more than in 2020. The much larger energy burden remains heat.

At the same time, progress in improving the housing stock has been limited. Between 2020 and 2025, only 3% of dwellings were fully insulated and another 10.5% received at least one energy-efficiency improvement. No insulation measures were carried out in 76.3% of dwellings.

The cost difference is substantial. Average heating expenditure in homes insulated during 2020–2025 was €7.03 per square metre, 38.2% below the €11.37 recorded in homes without energy-efficiency improvements.

District heating also remains highly uneven geographically. It supplied 82.2% of households in Riga but only 16.1% in rural areas.

The figures suggest that Latvia’s household energy challenge is still primarily a heating and building-efficiency issue rather than one of rising electricity consumption.

Source: Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia, household energy survey published 18 September 2026.