Air conditioning will be keeping millions of Americans safe and comfortable over the holiday weekend as a heat dome brings dangerous conditions to millions. But not everyone has access to the cooling power of AC.
An estimated 93% of the 127 million households in the United States had air conditioning in 2023, a figure that has gone up by about 16 percentage points since the start of the century, according to new experimental data from the U.S. Census Bureau and an earlier survey from the Energy Information Administration.
The 10 counties with the lowest percentage of households with AC in the continental United States were all located in coastal areas in California and Oregon, or in the higher elevations of Colorado. For example, San Francisco County was the lowest at 35%.
Meanwhile, a 17-household county, Kenedy in Texas, is an odd standout: the only one with 100% AC use.
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