Close Menu
    The Percentage of Homes With Air Conditioning Across The World
    Maps

    The Percentage of Homes With Air Conditioning Across The World

    Share.
    View 31 Comments

    31 Comments

    5. DateMasamusubi on

      Korean and Japanese wall units also double as heaters via heat pumps. Last I was in the States, This functionality seemed absent though I believe many American homes use HVAC instead.

    7. Knute5 on

      Here in Canada, heat pumps are being installed everywhere. On a particularly hot day, those heat pumps are used for the 5% of their other functionality as air conditioners.

    8. smorkoid on

      That 9% without it in Japan is Hokkaido lol

      No A/C in Kanto is like a death sentence

    9. Facuk_ on

      I don’t know how much % of houses does have AC here in Croatia, but I’m sure summers can be brutal, in inland Croatia we can have 38-40°C for weeks. If it’s not so high, then you have humidity which kinda makes thing even worse. All in all, AC is a life saver

    10. timbomcchoi on

      Gallup poll from 2025 ([report in Korean](https://www.gallup.co.kr/gallupdb/reportContent.asp?seqNo=1595)) finds that 98% of Korean households have AC.

      Other appliances for good measure:

      Rice cooker 97%
      Microwave 95%
      Kimchi fridge 85%
      water purifier 78%
      air fryer 73%
      air purifier 66%
      bidet 55%
      coffee machine 50%
      electric stove 44%
      dehumidifier 42%
      humidifier 39%
      massage chair 28%
      air circulator 26%
      dishwasher 24%
      oven 21%
      multicooker 17%
      home care / beauty 10%

    11. cbawiththismalarky on

      it’s currently 17 degrees where i am in Northern England and I’ve got the heating on, not sure what use air conditioning would be

    12. Rafxtt on

      That’s from 2018.

      It’s outdated for EU data, at least for newer homes and buildings.

      Starting from 2020-2022 because of new building codes and also energy (gas, oil) price hikes – because of Russia invading Ukraine – the % of heat pumps/AC both in new buildings and in renovations in older houses skyrocketed.

    13. Technoir1999 on

      Before a/c, a diplomatic post to Washington, DC, was a hardship post in the summer. I don’t know why Europeans don’t understand that half of the U.S. has a subtropical climate.

    15. make43 on

      On average, Finland experiences fewer than five days per year with temperatures exceeding 30°C.

    19. Mufflonfaret on

      In Sweden we do care more about heating the houses than chilling them. So no clear statistics. Most houses (not apts) do have an air heat pump though which can double as an AC summertime of needed.

    21. cozidgaf on

      Does this only include AC installed in the house like an HVAC system? Not like portable ones or window AC, split AC etc? Coz a lot of places may be doing that – NYC comes to mind and also older places or places that were not built with that infrastructure in mind – Europe, India, Brazil etc that maybe the case?

    24. Remote-Cow5867 on

      My friend in China just replaced an aircon for her studio. It costs $300 including installation. The installation takes 1 hour to complete. The aircon comes with 10 years warranty. If it breaks down in 10 years, she will get a new one free of charge.

    26. Neo_luigi on

      How are those 36% people of Saudi able to survive in the desert without ac ?

    27. HASMAD1 on

      Oh yes, the great country of Europe where Sweden and Spain share their air conditionings.

    28. localelore_official on

      What this map is also showing, if you look at the US specifically, is the demographic shift that completely reshaped American politics.

      Before widespread air conditioning, the American South and Southwest were brutal to live in year-round. Phoenix had about 5,500 people in 1900. Houston had roughly 45,000. Las Vegas didn’t really exist as a city.

      Willis Carrier solved the puzzle accidentally. He was hired in 1902 to fix a humidity problem at a Brooklyn printing company — paper kept warping, ink kept bleeding. His solution was to control the dew point by chilling the air. He had no idea he’d just made the Sunbelt livable.

      By the 1950s, window units were cheap enough for middle-class homes. Then central AC spread through new construction in the South and Southwest. People moved in enormous numbers — not just for jobs, but because summers were survivable for the first time.

      Phoenix: 65,000 in 1940, over a million by 1980. The Florida peninsula, the Texas Triangle, Las Vegas — all transformed. The US Census Bureau coined “Sunbelt” in the 1970s partly to describe what was happening.

      That shift rerouted where Americans chose to live, which changed House apportionment, the Electoral College balance, and eventually the national political center of gravity. The low AC rate in the UK despite high income is a different story — mostly Victorian and Edwardian housing stock that’s expensive to retrofit, plus a climate that hasn’t historically required it. That’s starting to change.