Who’s staying cool in New York’s scorching summers?

It’s hot outside. At times, record breakingly hot. And it’s even hotter when you don’t have air conditioning. The U.S. Census Bureau released new estimates earlier this year of how many households have AC, with New York ranking 40th nationwide in air conditioning access at 90.2%. Since the summer heat peaked in July, here’s a look at how AC access differs across the state.

Urban vs. rural

Across the state, urban areas tend to have higher rates of AC installed in homes. Three of the five counties with the lowest rates of AC were in or near the Adirondacks. The suburbs around New York City – including Long Island’s Nassau County, which had the state’s highest rate at 97% – were the best-performing areas. Other upstate urban areas, including the counties containing Buffalo, Albany, Rochester and Syracuse, were either on par with New York City’s high rates of AC or slightly below it.

New York City

In the city, only the Bronx’s AC install rate of 87.7% fell below 90%. The Bronx and Brooklyn, which have the lowest median incomes in the city, also had the lowest AC access rates. Staten Island had the highest rate in the city and the third-highest in the state at 96.6%. However, one important point with the data is that it does not distinguish between a household having AC and actually using it. According to a survey released in 2020, 15% of city residents that had a household AC unit did not use it during hot weather – a number that has likely increased given Con Edison’s rising electric rates.