Europe’s heat pumps provide as much heat as the liquefied natural gas carried by over 200 tankers*, new analysis from the European Heat Association reveals. This is double the amount which arrived in the EU in 2025 from the Middle East, and around 7% of the EU’s total annual imported LNG. This avoided €9.7 billion in import costs in 2025.
Heat pump sales rose 13% last year, hitting 2.9 million in 21 European countries* the European Heat Association’s new 2026 market report shows. This brings the total stock to 29.3 million*. The 2.9 million new heat pumps alone replace 2.5 bcm of liquefied natural gas (LNG), which is around 24% of the EU’s imports from the Middle East.
“Every heat pump installed is another bolt in the door of European energy security”, commented Paul Kenny, European Heat Pump Association Director General. “LNG is the most expensive energy source and comes from unreliable suppliers, and heat pumps can drastically reduce our need for it. Indeed, Europeans are already turning away from fossil fuel heating as our new data shows. The EU and governments’ job is to make this as easy and affordable as possible.”
The European Commission is currently preparing a non-legislative package around electrification, due in July. To boost heat pumps, a key part of this should be pushing Member States to reduce tax and VAT on heat pumps and electricity. The EU Commission has stated it wants to do just this.
In terms of year on year increases in individual countries, the 2025 leader was Germany with 50% growth, and a record broken in terms of national space heating market share, with heat pump sales representing 50% for the first time. Denmark saw a 36% sales increase.
In terms of units sold, France led with 528,000 heat pumps sold in 2025, followed by Italy with 423,000 units sold.
In terms of sales per 1,000 households, the leaders were Lithuania with 46 sales per 1,000 households, and Norway with 43.
France has the highest amount of installed heat pumps in Europe, with around 7 million, then Italy with just under 5 million. Relative to population size Norway wins with 650 heat pumps for every 1,000 households, and Finland with just above 540.
*For more information on these points, see ‘notes to the editor’, below.
For press members, if you wish to obtain the market report or organise an interview with EHPA director general Paul Kenny, please contact Sarah Azau (sarah.azau@ehpa.org).
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*Notes to the editor:
The stock numbers refer to both the ‘18 countries’ whose 2025 sales data we have received, plus the additional three countries whose data we have up to 2024.
The 18 countries are Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Norway and Switzerland.
The additional three countries are Ireland, Hungary and Estonia. We assumed their 2024 sales remained flat in 2025. On the graphs you’ll see this as (18+3 countries).
This year, EHPA has been able to gather estimated sales for 2025 from nine additional European countries using sales estimates from heat pump manufacturers. These are Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Romania and Slovenia. Including these countries’ sales in the 2025 numbers would bring total sales to 3.1 million. However, these countries’ sales are not included above or in any comparisons concerning sales over time or stock. On the graphs you’ll see this as (18+3+9 countries).
The gas numbers are calculated using an average vessel capacity of 174,000 m³ of LNG multiplied by the standard LNG-to-gas expansion ratio of 600:1, yielding a gas equivalent of 104.4 million m³ (0.1044 bcm) per vessel.
Applying this conversion to the 22.88 bcm of gas saved and recorded in EU heat pump stock — drawn from our market report covering 18 countries (15 core markets plus Hungary, Ireland, and Estonia) — the installed base represents the displacement of over 200 tanker-loads of LNG.
