Americans paid an average of 18.34 cents per kilowatt-hour for residential electricity in June 2026, up 5.0 percent from June 2025, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That national average conceals a spread of roughly three to one between the cheapest and most expensive parts of the country.
Below are the current figures by region, with the source named for each, and the household consequences the price data does not show.
Electricity prices by census division
The Energy Information Administration’s annual data on electric sales, revenue, and average price, built from utility filings on Forms EIA-861 and its companions, puts the 2024 residential average at 16.48 cents per kilowatt-hour nationally. By census division:
- Pacific Noncontiguous: 34.95 cents
- New England: 27.68 cents
- Pacific Contiguous: 24.23 cents
- Middle Atlantic: 20.63 cents
- East North Central: 16.48 cents
- South Atlantic: 14.51 cents
- Mountain: 14.12 cents
- West South Central: 14.04 cents
- West North Central: 13.47 cents
- East South Central: 13.40 cents
At the state level the same source puts Hawaii at 42.86 cents and California at 31.97 cents against Idaho at 11.52 cents and Louisiana at 11.73 cents. A household in Hawaii pays roughly 3.7 times the Idaho rate for the identical kilowatt-hour.
Monthly bills tell a different story than prices
Price per unit and bill size do not rank the same way, because consumption varies with climate and housing stock. The Energy Information Administration puts the 2024 average residential electricity bill at $142.26 a month nationally. By division:
- Pacific Noncontiguous: $184.65
- New England: $166.48
- West South Central: $154.89
- South Atlantic: $152.04
- East South Central: $150.89
- Pacific Contiguous: $149.69
- Middle Atlantic: $138.85
- Mountain: $122.20
- East North Central: $121.66
- West North Central: $118.81
The East South Central division has the lowest price in the country and the fifth highest bill. Cheap power plus heavy air conditioning load produces an expensive month. Meanwhile Pacific Contiguous, with the third highest price, lands mid-table on bills because mild coastal weather holds usage down.
A separate Energy Information Administration analysis using Electric Power Monthly data put the 2024 national average bill at about $144 a month on average consumption of 865 kilowatt-hours. The small gap against $142.26 comes from different source forms, not from a disagreement about the direction.
Heating costs by fuel and region
The Energy Information Administration’s Winter Fuels Outlook for the 2025-26 season, published in October 2025, projected household expenditures for November through March:
- Natural gas: $642 nationally, down 1 percent from the prior winter
- Electricity: $1,133, up 4 percent
- Propane: $1,210, down 9 percent
- Heating oil: $1,390, down 8 percent
Regional detail for the two most common fuels shows the geography plainly. Natural gas ran a projected $868 in the Northeast, $613 in the Midwest, $600 in the West, and $514 in the South. Electric heating ran $1,519 in the Northeast, $1,283 in the Midwest, $1,117 in the West, and $1,031 in the South.
A Northeast household heating with electricity faced a projected winter roughly three times the cost of a Southern household on natural gas.
The same outlook put the winter residential natural gas price at $13.50 per thousand cubic feet nationally, with the Northeast at $16.02 and the Midwest at $10.43. Its 10 percent colder scenario raised national gas expenditure to $681 and electricity to $1,177.
Year-over-year increases
Two federal series measure the change, and they agree on direction. The Energy Information Administration recorded residential electricity up 5.0 percent in June 2026 against June 2025. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, in its August 2026 Consumer Price Index release, put the electricity index up 3.8 percent over twelve months and utility piped gas service up 4.4 percent, with energy services as a group up 4.0 percent.
The gap between 5.0 and 3.8 percent reflects different reference months and different construction. Both exceed the 2.4 percent core inflation rate in the same Consumer Price Index release.
Electricity carries a relative importance of 2.551 in that index and utility gas 0.752, so a 4 percent rise in both moves the headline almost imperceptibly while showing up in full on the bill.
What households do when the bill arrives
The National Energy Assistance Directors Association reported in February 2026 that about 21.5 million U.S. households, roughly one in six, are behind on their energy bills. The same report put the average energy burden for low-income households at 8.6 percent of income against 3.0 percent for other families, and noted that 33 states have no summer shut-off protections.
The Energy Information Administration’s Residential Energy Consumption Survey measures the household response directly. In its 2020 survey, covering 123.53 million housing units, 33.58 million households reported some form of energy insecurity. Of those, 24.61 million reduced or went without food or medicine to pay an energy bill, 12.36 million received a disconnection notice, and 12.20 million kept their home at a temperature they considered unhealthy.
Those counts work out to roughly 27 percent, 20 percent, and 10 percent of households respectively. The survey is from 2020, with final tables released in August 2025, so it predates the price increases described above.
Renters reported forgoing food or medicine at higher counts than owners despite being the smaller group, and households in poorly insulated homes reported it at higher rates than those in well-insulated homes. The bill is a function of the building as much as the rate.
Reading the spread
Regional price differences follow generation mix, fuel transport, and transmission distance rather than policy alone, and the three-to-one range is durable. What changes faster is the share of income the bill consumes.
Fight For A Living Wage, a nonpartisan grassroots 501(c)(3), treats utilities as one component of an affordability problem spanning housing, healthcare, childcare, food, transport and education, rather than as a standalone energy issue. The Energy Information Administration figures above support that framing, since the same 4 to 5 percent increase lands very differently on a household at 8.6 percent energy burden than on one at 3.0 percent.
Every figure here comes from the Energy Information Administration, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, or the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, and all three publish the underlying tables publicly.
