A production site.

In 2023, the EU economy’s net domestic energy use was 56.1 million terajoules (-4.1% compared with 2022). Businesses and governments consumed 72.3% for their production activities, and the remaining 27.7% was consumed directly by households. 

When considering energy use by economic activity, manufacturing was responsible for the largest share of net domestic energy use (14.3 million terajoules; 25.5% of the overall net domestic energy use), followed by electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply (10.1 million terajoules; 17.9%) and transport and storage (6.9 million terajoules; 12.3%).

Energy accounts, 2023. Pie chart - Click below to see full dataset.

Source dataset: env_ac_pefa04

Compared with 2022, electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply recorded the sharpest decrease in energy use (-8.7%), followed by manufacturing (-5.5%), while transportation and storage (+8.1%) was the only economic activity that used more energy in 2023.

Sharp declines and increases over the past 10 years in EU countries

Between 2014 and 2023, the pace toward greater energy efficiency in production activities in the EU was mixed. Estonia (-43.1%), Ireland (-42.8%) and the Netherlands (- 37.2%) saw the most rapid declines in energy use intensity of gross value added. Malta (+22.9%) and Lithuania (+9.3%) were the only countries that observed an increase.

Source datasets: env_ac_pefa04 and nama_10_a64

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Methodological notes

  • The figures and statistics presented here are based on European environmental-economic accounts and macro-economic modelling using national accounts data, classifying economic activities according to the statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community (NACE). This is different from the categories in energy statistics, in particular but not only for transportation and storage.
  • Net domestic energy use is the total of the following energy statistics variables: final energy consumption by end users, energy sectors’ own use, losses during transformation (for example, from oil or gas into electricity) and distribution of energy, as well as those energy amounts of international aviation and international marine bunkers used by resident units. Net domestic energy use includes energy used directly by households and energy used by production activities of businesses and governments.
  • Combining net domestic energy use with the value added created by producers shows the energy intensity of the economy. Gross value added measures the creation of value by each production activity. A decrease in energy intensity means less energy is needed to create the same amount of value added - or more value added is produced out of the same amount of energy - indicating that a production activity has become more energy efficient. Energy use by households is not included in the calculation of energy intensity because households do not generate gross value added.

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