The chart above shows the residential cost of natural gas per kilowatt hour in US dollars for each EU and US state in 2016. Surprisingly, Sweden has higher costs than Hawaii which has serious shipping issues as it is located in the middle of the world's largest ocean.
Findings
- The difference between the state with the most expensive residential natural gas, Sweden, and the state with the cheapest, North Dakota, is $0.10.
- Sweden has 5.13 times the residential natural gas prices that North Dakota does.
- The median cost of residential natural gas in the 25 EU states (Cyprus, Finland, and Malta are not included due to lack of a significant residential grid) is $0.06 and the mean $0.06.
- The median cost of residential natural gas in the 50 US states is $0.04 and the mean $0.04.
Caveats
- All figures are rounded to the nearest hundredth.
- EU and US data come from different sources.
- Cyprus, Finland, and Malta are not included in the list as Cyprus and Malta do not have a residential natural gas grid, and Finland has a very small one in a limited geographic area.
- EU data was converted from euros to dollars at the average 2016 0.90 euros to dollars rate and the 2017 0.88 euros to dollars rate.
Details
Nine out of the ten most expensive states are in the EU, Hawaii being the only US state. Conversely, the 26 cheapest states for residential natural gas are all from the US.
It is surprising to see how expensive the commodity is in Sweden (probably due to taxation - the prices all include taxes), when Hawaii needs the commodity shipped to it over half of the Pacific Ocean and still manages to keep the cost lower than Sweden.
Sources
Eurostat. 2018. "Gas Prices for Household Consumers - Bi-Annual Data (from 2007 Onwards)." Accessed September 6, 2018. http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?query=BOOKMARK_DS-052776_QID_11386210_UID_-3F171EB0&layout=TIME,C,X,0;GEO,L,Y,0;PRODUCT,L,Z,0;CONSOM,L,Z,1;UNIT,L,Z,2;TAX,L,Z,3;CURRENCY,L,Z,4;INDICATORS,C,Z,5;&zSelection=DS-052776PRODUCT,4100;DS-052776UNIT,KWH;DS-052776CURRENCY,EUR;DS-052776INDICATORS,OBS_FLAG;DS-052776CONSOM,4141902;DS-052776TAX,X_TAX;&rankName1=TIME_1_0_0_0&rankName2=TAX_1_2_-1_2&rankName3=UNIT_1_2_-1_2&rankName4=GEO_1_2_0_1&rankName5=CURRENCY_1_2_-1_2&rankName6=CONSOM_1_2_-1_2&rankName7=INDICATORS_1_2_-1_2&rankName8=PRODUCT_1_2_-1_2&sortC=ASC_-1_FIRST&rStp=&cStp=&rDCh=&cDCh=&rDM=true&cDM=true&footnes=false&empty=false&wai=false&time_mode=NONE&time_most_recent=false&lang=EN&cfo=%23%23%23%2C%23%23%23.%23%23%23.
US Energy Information Administration. 2018. "US Natural Gas Prices." Accessed September 6, 2018. https://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/ng_pri_sum_dcu_nus_a.htm.