Fact-check: Does Hungary really have the lowest utility costs in the EU?

Ever since the introduction of the utility cost reduction programme in Hungary, one of the government's main talking points has been that households have saved a lot of money as a result, and that is why it must be defended from Brussels at all costs. Many have shared a recent Facebook post by János Hargitai, an MP of the co-governing party KDNP, who wrote that, according to Eurostat data, Hungary has the lowest utility costs in the European Union:

The above graph was indeed included in Eurostat's report examining the first half of 2025. However, as is often the case with statistics, it is not good to treat them in isolation, without context, because this can easily lead to results that differ slightly from reality.

Due to the utility cost reduction programme, we are indeed paying less per month for some of our utilities in Hungary than we would without the programme. However, this does not mean that we are actually saving as much as we see on our bills: the other part of our actual costs is paid by the state, which is funded by public money, i.e. the citizens' money. It is not that the government has arranged for all participants in the electricity supply chain to be able to produce and deliver energy to users more cheaply, which is why it is cheaper, but rather that it is taking over part of the monthly costs. However, it is using public funds to cover this, which is also our money. So, ultimately, we are still paying for the energy. In the first half of the year, the utility cost reduction programme cost the state nearly HUF 500 billion.

The statement that "Hungary has the lowest utility costs" is also problematic because it comes with a big "that depends". Not everyone pays the same amount: in 2022, the government was forced to reduce utility cost reductions and has since only provided discounts for consumption below the average. For this reason, it is worth looking not only at household electricity costs in the Eurostat report, but also at the costs of other players, which are the sixth highest in the EU in Hungary. However, if businesses receive higher bills, this will ultimately be passed on to consumers – at least in part – as companies will incorporate this into the price of their products and services. We are already leading the way in network charges, which are the highest in the EU (€68 per megawatt hour in 2023).

It is not the cost of utilities itself that is important, but rather how that cost compares to household income. In response to our question, energy expert Anna Bajomi pointed out that, according to European Commission data, utility bills are a particularly heavy burden for low-income Hungarian households, with nearly 15 percent of their expenditure going on energy in 2024, the fourth highest in the EU in this income category. For the lower middle class, the figure is 11.85 percent (the sixth highest in the category), and for the middle class, it is 9.15 percent (the fourth highest). Not to mention that the Hungarian median income is the lowest in the EU in terms of purchasing power parity.

In addition, according to data from the Central Statistical Office, the price of firewood, which is not covered by the utility cost reduction, has nearly doubled since January 2021, costing an average of 8,100 forints per 100 kilograms in October 2025. According to a firewood supplier, for a house with medium insulation and a modern wood gasification boiler, this means that roughly 4 cubic meters, or 2.4 tons, of wood is needed for one winter, which cost 194,400 forints in October.

This is where another significant problem arises: the insulation in Hungarian residential properties is not particularly modern. Or even adequate. According to a Habitat report, Hungarian households use on average nearly one and a half times as much energy per square meter for heating as the EU average, and two-thirds of buildings have an energy rating of G or worse. The situation is even worse for single-family homes: 82 percent of them fall into one of the three worst energy classes. What's more, there is a direct link between the poor energy efficiency of homes and the utility cost reduction programme: many people have probably not invested in energy efficiency because the state-subsidised energy prices didn't motivate them to do so.

Based on the above, it would be difficult to claim that thanks to the utility cost reduction, Hungarians have the cheapest utility costs in the EU. The bills are indeed lower than in neighbouring countries. Still, on the one hand, this is compensated for by public funds, and on the other hand, even the lower amount places a greater burden on Hungarian households. One sign of this is that at the end of November, there was a protest against high network charges and utility costs in front of the Budapest Electric Works building.