Air Conditioning Availability in New York
In May 2026, the U.S. Census Bureau released its Local Air Conditioning Estimates (LACE)1 that measure air conditioning access as a key indicator of heat vulnerability.
The data show that 90.2 percent of New York’s occupied households had some type of air conditioning unit in 2023,2 ranking 39th among all states and the District of Columbia, and below the national average of 93.1 percent.
Within New York, county-level access to air conditioning varied widely, from 97.0 percent in Nassau County to just 61.2 percent in Hamilton County. The top New York counties for percentage of households with air conditioning were located downstate with Nassau, Rockland, Richmond, Putnam and Suffolk counties each with over 95 percent of households with air conditioning. Less populated rural counties in the North Country and Southern Tier had a lower percentage of households with air conditioning; Hamilton, Delaware, Allegany, Lewis and Franklin counties each had less than 70 percent of its households having air conditioning.
New York ranked third among states in number of households without air conditioning at just over 751,000 (9.8 percent), trailing California at 2.9 million households (21.4 percent) and Washington with just over 1 million households (34.2 percent).
Brooklyn had the largest number of households without air conditioning, nearly 92,000, although 90.9 percent of its households had air conditioning. The Bronx (over 65,000) and Queens (over 62,000) followed with the largest number of households without air conditioning, even though 87.7 percent and 92.5 percent of their households had air conditioning, respectively.
While geographic features like mountain ranges and water bodies keep some New York regions naturally cooler, extreme heat can be dangerous. According to the Office of the State Comptroller’s report on Severe Weather Events and Resiliency in New York State, extreme heat events account for the largest share of New York’s severe weather-related deaths, claiming over 120 lives since 1996. As extreme weather becomes more frequent, understanding where New Yorkers are most vulnerable is increasingly important as we enter the summer season.
- Data Table
County Percent Occupied Households With Air Conditioning Number of Occupied Households With Any Kind of Air Conditioning Number of Occupied Households Without Any Kind of Air Conditioning Albany County 93.3% 123,834 8,894 Allegany County 67.6% 11,530 5,527 Bronx County 87.7% 464,866 65,201 Broome County 83.8% 68,531 13,250 Cattaraugus County 73.1% 23,261 8,561 Cayuga County 82.2% 25,757 5,577 Chautauqua County 77.7% 41,650 11,952 Chemung County 88.0% 30,723 4,193 Chenango County 70.3% 13,918 5,882 Clinton County 85.6% 28,481 4,795 Columbia County 82.9% 21,634 4,464 Cortland County 78.9% 14,807 3,961 Delaware County 64.8% 12,279 6,668 Dutchess County 92.5% 106,544 8,640 Erie County 87.4% 357,215 51,496 Essex County 71.2% 11,420 4,619 Franklin County 69.1% 13,291 5,943 Fulton County 80.2% 18,130 4,477 Genesee County 85.4% 21,154 3,615 Greene County 79.1% 14,387 3,801 Hamilton County 61.2% 1,292 819 Herkimer County 79.1% 20,114 5,312 Jefferson County 83.6% 39,042 7,659 Kings County 90.9% 917,728 91,868 Lewis County 67.8% 7,429 3,529 Livingston County 82.2% 20,000 4,329 Madison County 77.6% 19,835 5,728 Monroe County 87.7% 277,583 38,923 Montgomery County 82.8% 15,927 3,307 Nassau County 97.0% 442,397 13,679 New York County 93.1% 721,880 53,496 Niagara County 82.4% 75,391 16,102 Oneida County 82.7% 78,039 16,322 Onondaga County 89.0% 173,517 21,446 Ontario County 87.7% 41,819 5,865 Orange County 95.0% 130,443 6,868 Orleans County 75.6% 12,252 3,956 Oswego County 83.8% 39,497 7,635 Otsego County 70.6% 15,961 6,647 Putnam County 95.6% 33,513 1,541 Queens County 92.5% 766,109 62,121 Rensselaer County 89.9% 59,545 6,688 Richmond County 96.6% 164,269 5,778 Rockland County 96.8% 99,980 3,304 Saint Lawrence County 76.2% 31,800 9,932 Saratoga County 95.4% 95,240 4,595 Schenectady County 93.0% 61,684 4,640 Schoharie County 71.2% 8,856 3,583 Schuyler County 71.1% 5,265 2,140 Seneca County 85.5% 11,696 1,983 Steuben County 77.2% 30,041 8,875 Suffolk County 95.5% 489,229 23,051 Sullivan County 75.1% 22,692 7,523 Tioga County 82.6% 16,697 3,517 Tompkins County 80.5% 34,831 8,438 Ulster County 88.8% 64,917 8,188 Warren County 88.0% 26,437 3,604 Washington County 80.7% 19,573 4,681 Wayne County 79.4% 30,347 7,875 Westchester County 95.1% 352,114 18,142 Wyoming County 73.1% 11,888 4,375 Yates County 84.3% 7,666 1,429 New York State Total 90.2% 6,917,947 751,009
Endnote
1 Data for this analysis are derived from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Local Air Conditioning Estimates (LACE) which provides estimates created from machine learning and cross-survey predictive modeling using data from the 2023 American Housing Survey and the 2019-2023 American Community Survey 5-year estimates, along with geographic data such as weather and utility costs, and other relevant data. For more information, please see: U.S. Census Bureau, Local Air Conditioning Estimates (LACE) [Experimental]. As the data is experimental, there are wide margins of error for some counties. Retrieved June 2026, from https://www.census.gov/data/experimental-data-products/lace.html.
2 The Census Bureau’s LACE model addresses the variable of whether a housing unit had any kind air conditioning unit using 2023 American Housing Survey microdata that records the presence of heating and air conditioning equipment including central air conditioning equipment powered by multiple fuel sources as well as the presence of one or more room air conditioners.