It turned out that households with a high share of fuel costs relative to income in Korea reached 20% last year. With oil prices surging recently due to the Middle East crisis, there are concerns that not a few households could suffer from an excessive energy cost burden.
A report titled "Comparative analysis of energy poverty indicators and policy application measures" released on the 8th by the Korea Energy Economics Institute (KEEI) contained these research findings.
The institute used data from the Ministry of Data and Statistics (MODS) household trend survey and other sources to calculate the energy poverty rate by applying the four indicators proposed by the European Union (EU) "Energy Poverty Observatory" (EPOV). The EPOV is an energy poverty statistics and indicator management platform established and supported by the European Commission.
As a result, "households with a high share of fuel costs relative to income," defined as "when the share of housing energy cost expenditure in total household income exceeds twice the national median," was tallied at 19.5% based on the 2025 first-quarter household trend survey data. The institute said, "If Korea's energy poverty rate were that of an EU member state, it would be roughly in the middle."
The share of "households with low fuel cost expenditure," where household housing energy cost expenditure is at or below half the national median (13.1% last year), was similar to the average of 26 EU member states (13.2%). The gap in disposable income between households classified as energy poor and those not was 2.5 times.
However, Korea's "share of households unable to heat adequately" and "share of households in arrears on energy bills" were significantly lower than the EU member state average.
The institute said, "Although the budget related to energy welfare is surging, there are signs that content and targets related to energy poverty are being reduced in major energy plans such as the Basic Energy Plan," adding, "Rational policies based on objective and quantified energy poverty indicators are needed to proactively protect and effectively support energy-vulnerable groups during crises such as sharp energy price spikes."