Inequality of energy poverty between groups in Spain

Highlights: • An appropriate method to measure energy poverty is proposed. • Energy poverty is measured for Spain using counting poverty indices. • Energy poverty in Spain is calculated for type of households. • Energy poverty in Spain has increased between 2005 and 2016. In this paper, we have measured the evolution of energy poverty in Spain for years 2005, 2008, 2012 and 2016. It has been analyzed for different classifications of the household and different characteristics of the main breadwinner such as gender, type of house, education and so on. The variables used to measure energy poverty are three energy accessibility indicators: the ability to keep the home adequately warm, the arrears on utility bills (electricity, water, gas) and the presence of a leaking roof, damp walls or rotten windows. We have also computed the inequality of the energy poverty results between groups for each characteristic. Results suggest that energy poverty in Spain worsened between 2005 and 2016. Specifically, for thinly populated areas and for households in which the main breadwinner have been born outside of Europe.