Europe is overheating. Its cooling hasn't caught up.
The continent that long dismissed air conditioning as an unnecessary indulgence is now living through deadly summers. This is the evidence — the heat, the human cost, the gap in cooling, the rules, the price, and what people actually want. Every figure is sourced.
The gap, in one chart
Each country's typical summer heat plotted against the share of homes that can cool. The top-left is the danger zone: hot summers, little relief. Click a point — or use the country filter below — to dig into any one of them.
Europe is warming fast, but cooling is unevenly spread and often unaffordable — and in places, capped by law.
Europe is warming fast, but cooling is unevenly distributed and often unaffordable — and in places, capped by law.
Start with the cause. Europe's summers are not what they were.
The Heat
Across 30 European countries, the hottest day of each year has climbed steadily since 2000. Select a country to see its own record.
This is not discomfort. Heat is the continent's deadliest weather.
The Human Cost
Europe-wideHeat is the deadliest extreme-weather hazard in Europe. These are not projections — they are counted, peer-reviewed excess deaths.
Cooling saves lives in a heatwave. So who actually has it?
The Air-Conditioning Gap
Share of households with air conditioning, by country. Pale-blue countries rarely reach the heat where cooling is a necessity; hatched countries are hot enough for it to matter but have no comparable figure on record — the gap in the data is itself part of the story. Click a country to filter the dossier.
By setting
Only homes have comparable cross-country figures on record; cooling in workplaces, hospitals, schools and care homes is rarely measured — another gap in the evidence.
| Country | Setting | % with AC | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| IT | Homes | 56% | At least one space-cooling system, 2024 |
| FR | Homes | 24% | At least one AC system, 2025 |
| DE | Homes | 19% | Households owning an AC, 2024 |
| GB | Homes | 4.3% | English homes using AC, 2023–24 |
Where cooling is scarce, you'd expect every effort to expand it. Often the rules pull the other way.
The Rules
Some rules protect access to cooling; others cap or constrain it. Tags mark whether each rulerestricts,enables, or isneutral.
Even where cooling is permitted, someone has to pay for it.
The Cost
Typical purchase ranges by air-conditioning type, European market.
| Type | kW | Price range € | Region |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portable unit | 2.0–3.5 | €300–650 | NL |
| Split system | 2.5–5.0 | €1,000–2,200 | NL |
| Multi-split | 5.0–8.0 | €1,800–3,900 | NL |
| Air-source heat pump | 8.0–16 | €9,000–20,000 | EU (excl. DE) |
Against these prices, affordability — not just availability — decides who stays cool. A heat pump can cost more than half a year's median income.
So what do Europeans themselves make of all this?
What People Want
Public attitudes are conflicted: Europeans increasingly see cooling as essential, yet hesitate over cost and climate impact.
The Sources
Every figure here comes from official statistics, peer-reviewed research, government agencies or primary legal texts — not partisan media. Each source is classified below; a media-bias leaning is shown only where a source is a news outlet, and none of the evidence rests on a politically-rated source.