# Invisible energy poverty? Analysing housing costs in Central and Eastern Europe (Aug 2020)

* **Invisible energy poverty? Analysing housing costs in Central and Eastern Europe**
* By  Lilia Karpinska and Sławomir Śmiech. Published online on 5 August 2020 in Energy Research and Social science (full version of the article not available for free)
* <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214629620302450?via%3Dihub>
* **Abstract**:
  * The paper offers a comprehensive approach to capturing the **scale of exposure to hidden energy poverty** at a household level in 11 Central and Eastern European countries.
  * "Scarce data and the **lack of agreement on the energy poverty definition among the EU countries** impedes operationalization of energy poverty measures on a global scale," notes the paper.
  * The paper tracks hidden energy poverty based on the existing micro-level data compiled by Eurostat, and assumes that the energy poor limit their energy consumption to the level below what is reasonably assumed a decent life.
  * The results confirm that **on average 23.57% of the Central and Eastern European population is exposed to hidden energy poverty**. The affected are mostly **single-person households or living in detached houses and remote areas households with dependent children.**
* **Keywords**: hidden energy poverty, energy poverty, Central Europe, Eastern Europe, energy,&#x20;