Rural-urban inequality in energy use sufficiency and efficiency during a rapid urbanization period

Developing countries with rapid urbanization face challenges in providing sufficient energy to both rural and urban households in an efficient manner. However, few empirical studies explored both energy sufficiency and efficiency inequality in rural and urban households at the sub-national level within a nation during a rapid urbanization period to inform equitable energy transitions. Therefore, this research collected 2000–2019 subnational-level data in China to explore the pattern of rural-vs-urban inequality in energy use per person (indicating sufficiency) and energy use intensity (EUI, indicating efficiency). Gini coefficients and disparity ratios, two social inequality measurements, were used to quantify social inequality in energy use. Fixed effect models with interaction terms were adopted to explore the impact of income, energy end-use structure, and floor area on energy use differences between rural and urban households. Gini coefficients of both energy measurements decreased by 43%–47% from 2000 to 2019, suggesting a more equitable distribution of end-use energy sufficiency and efficiency between urban and rural households. Rural-vs-urban disparity ratios showed that rural households in more provinces used more energy per person with higher EUI than urban households in 2019, compared to the pattern observed in 2000. Income in rural households had a statistically significant larger impact on energy use per person and EUI than that in urban households. By evaluating energy inequality in both sufficiency and efficiency from an overlooked rural-vs-urban perspective, this study enhances the understanding of social inequality in energy use and provides valuable insights into just energy transitions in urbanizing and developing countries.