Map of Median Electricity Prices by County

This is an interactive map of how much Americans pay for electricity every month. Green and blue hues represent higher monthly prices. Darker colors indicate counties with larger populations. Hover for especific values per county. Zoom in for more details. Scroll down for more information.

Monthly Electricity Prices

How Much Americans Pay for Electricity

Did you ever wonder, how much your neighbors pay for electricity? Even better, did you think you were paying more than they did?

This American Community Survey Census data is from 2018-2023. It shows how much Americans pay in electric bills each month. The data is clustered in groups.

Each county's color, represents the 50^th percentile of households paying a specific amount.

Southern states pay higher prices for their electricity. Fortunately, the counties in these states do not suffer from extreme winters.

Meanwhile, counties in western states have lower electric bills.

Highest Median Electricity Prices

McMullen County, Texas
Kent County, Texas
Hyde County, South Dakota
Franklin City, Virginia
Sitka City and Borough, Alaska

Lowest Median Electricity Prices

Kenedy County, Texas
Kalawao County, Hawaii
Loving County, Texas

It baffles me why the highest and the lowest paying counties are in Texas. Nevertheless, some of these counties have a small populations and are oil drilling counties which might explain extreme values.

Loving County, Texas is a can of worms you can read about in the link.

Factors Affecting Electric Bill Pricing

It is obvious that inflation is affecting prices for everything, but household bills are payments Americans have very little influence over changing once they move into a house.

Lately there has been a lot of talk about data centers driving up electricity costs, but what are the main factors driving up prices?

In some locations like Alaska and Hawaii fuel prices radically affect the price of electricity.

Other factors include power plant costs, transmission and distribution systems.

Weather conditions definitely affect prices. Extreme temperatures increase the demand for heating and cooling, which also results in increased prices.

Rain and snow provide water for affordable hydropower generation.

Other renewable energy sources like wind have proven to be cheap and common in places like the Midwest.

In other instances regulations are the major factor that affect electricity bills.

For an in-depth look at how electricity prices are calculated, Amazon has Modeling and Forecasting Electricity Loads and Prices: A Statistical Approach (The Wiley Finance Series).

This book offers an in-depth and up-to-date review of different statistical tools that can be used to analyze and forecast electricity prices and loads.