February 28, 2018 – Baby, it’s cold outside! While the majority of U.S. households are heated by electricity (38.7 percent) or utility gas (48.1 percent), 1.9 percent rely on wood for heat.
See below for a list of counties with populations of 65,000 or greater that rank among the highest using wood for home heating.
| State | Percent heated by wood | Margin of error |
| Apache County, Arizona | 60.6 | 3.8 |
| McKinley County, New Mexico | 38.8 | 3.7 |
| Navajo County, Arizona | 35.5 | 2.4 |
| Mendocino County, California | 24.8 | 4.1 |
| Grays Harbor County, Washington | 19.9 | 4.6 |
| Humboldt County, California | 19.3 | 2.4 |
| Josephine County, Oregon | 18.6 | 3.5 |
| Klamath County, Oregon | 18.3 | 3.6 |
| St. Lawrence County, New York | 17.5 | 2.5 |
| Nevada County, California | 16.6 | 3.0 |
The listed states may not be statistically different from each other and there are nine counties whose percentage of homes heated primarily by wood is not statistically different from counties on this list (Coconino, Arizona; Aroostook, Maine; El Dorado, California; Shasta, California; San Juan, New Mexico; Franklin, Massachusetts; Lewis, Washington; Douglas, Oregon; and Cheshire, New Hampshire.)
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2016 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table DP04. The margin of error is based on a 90 percent confidence level.
Jennifer M Ortman is Assistant Division Chief for Survey Methods and Measures at the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey Office.
David Raglin is a Survey Statistician in the American Community Survey Office.