Large Counties with Lowest Percent of Housing Units with AC,

[dimondpark]

This is data from 2023 that was released on May 19, 2026

Most large counties are in the very high 90th percentile, but here the counties with at 25,000+ with no Air Conditioning of any kind, and the percent of units that do have AC of some kind.

Percent
with-----Housing
AC of-----Units
Some---With No
Kind----AC of Any
-----------Kind-----County, State
97.1%---60,453----Cook, IL
93.4%---27,498----Salt Lake, UT
93.1%---53,496----New York, NY
92.5%---41,555----Cuyahoga, OH
92.5%---62,121----Queens, NY
90.9%---63,115----Wayne, MI
90.1%---91,868----Kings, NY
89.9%---39,293----Milwaukee, WI
87.7%---65,201----Bronx, NY
87.7%---38,923----Monroe, NY
87.4%---51,496----Erie, NY
86.8%---45,851----Multnomah, OR
86.7%---31,924----Jefferson, CO
83.9%---25,083----Solano, CA
79.4%---84,799----Contra Costa, CA
79.3%---701,788---Los Angeles, CA
77.3%---243,948---Orange, CA
75.9%---31,333----Cumberland, ME
75.5%---69,380----El Paso, CO
74.2%---299,246---San Diego, CA
72.1%---77,579----Ventura, CA
71.1%---46,099----Lane, OR
66.0%---153,097---Santa Clara, CA
61.8%---26,491----Santa Fe, NM
59.2%---77,723----Sonoma, CA
57.6%---251,480---Alameda, CA
57.1%---46,714----San Luis Obispo, CA
55.5%---154,288---Pierce, WA
53.1%---435,146---King, WA
52.2%---149,048---Snohomish, WA
50.0%---27,743----Maui, HI
45.3%---81,481----Santa Barbara, CA
45.2%---50,641----Whatcom, WA
42.6%---75,800----Monterey, CA
42.1%---153,097---San Mateo, CA
41.2%---60,684----Marin, CA
38.0%---60,059----Santa Cruz, CA
36.6%---34,795----Humboldt, CA
34.6%---47,788----Hawaii, HI
34.6%---237,175---San Francisco, CA
34.5%---124,374---Honolulu, HI
17.5%---29,844----Fairbanks, AK
5.8%----37,381----Matanuska-Susitna, AK
4.8%----103,691---Anchorage, AK

https://www.census.gov/data/experimental-data-products/lace.html

[iheartthed]

Probably should sort by housing unit count?

[38 Geary]

The coastal Bay Area makes sense. Rarely need AC there aside from occasional heat waves. Inland Bay Area definitely needed.

[38 Geary]

Looks like Honolulu is listed twice?

[dimondpark]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Probably should sort by housing unit count?

You are correct, by the time I realized that I was almost done...

[dimondpark]

Originally Posted by homebucket

Looks like Honolulu is listed twice?

Thanks, the imposter has been removed.

[dimondpark]

Originally Posted by homebucket

The coastal Bay Area makes sense. Rarely need AC there aside from occasional heat waves. Inland Bay Area definitely needed.

Yup, I would die in the 925 with no AC

[Crawford]

Santa Clara is only at 66%?? San Jose is damn hot.

[mrnyc]

Originally Posted by dimondpark

Yup, I would die in the 925 with no AC

im gonna die in any nyc zips today — its blazing sun and 95 degrees.

i guess no spring this year — right to summer.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by mrnyc

im gonna die in any nyc zips today — its blazing sun and 95 degrees.

i guess no spring this year — right to summer.

You might need a coat this weekend.

[Crawford]

I lived w/o AC in NYC until like 2010? It was fine except for a few days of the year.

Now I couldn't do it.

[Steely Dan]

I spent my entire childhood living in a house and going to schools with no AC in the burbs of Chicago.

I got through it, but it might play into the reaon why I fucking hate heat & humidity so much.

I got my first taste of real AC when I got my first condo at age 30, and have never looked back.



For cook county, they must be including window AC units because there's no way in hell that 97% of cook county has central AC (62% of all housing units predate 1970). And as someone who has experience with both, central AC and windows units are NOT the same thing at all.

[New Brisavoine]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Santa Clara is only at 66%?? San Jose is damn hot.

Not really. It's cooled by the ocean.

[hipster duck]

20 most populous US counties and my opinion on whether I'd live there with no A/C:

1. Los Angeles, CA - I could
2. Cook, IL - I could, but I wouldn't enjoy myself
3. Harris, TX - absolutely not!
4. Maricopa, AZ - would you live in Yakutsk without heating?
5. San Diego, CA - I could
6. Orange, CA - Yeah, maybe
7. Miami-Dade, FL - No!
8. Dallas, TX - Oh God, no!
9. Kings, NY - I could, but I'd rather not
10. Riverside, CA - No!
11. Clark, NV - Maybe not quite like living in Yakutsk with no heating, but like living in Fargo with no heating?
12. Queens, NY - I'd rather not
13. King, WA - Sure
14. Tarrant, TX - no way!
15. San Bernardino, CA - absolutely not!
16. Bexar, TX - absolutely not! Wow, so much of the US lives in places that get unbearably hot
17. Broward, FL - keeping with the theme, here, this is another place that owes its existence to air conditioning
18. Santa Clara, CA - maybe
19. Wayne, MI - Okay, I could do this as a soft, middle-aged adult, but I'd be spending the summer months sleeping in the basement
20. Middlesex, MA - Yeah, although I feel that Boston can get hotter than you think when you move inland

[Crawford]

For places like SD, it depends where.

Coastal SD is great w/o AC. Inland SD, you'll die. It's almost Phoenix weather. A few miles make a huge difference.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by New Brisavoine

Not really. It's cooled by the ocean.

On an average weekday, it prolly takes an hour from downtown SJ to the ocean. Not very close. Even parts of San Mateo County get quite hot, but Santa Clara County gets unbearably hot.

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by Crawford

For places like SD, it depends where.

Coastal SD is great w/o AC. Inland SD, you'll die. It's almost Phoenix weather. A few miles make a huge difference.

That's true. And that's true for LA county, too. Huge difference between Santa Monica and Lancaster.

[JManc]

I went a whole year without ever touching the AC when I lived in Fremont. All I needed was a small fan on warmer days.

[dimondpark]

Originally Posted by mrnyc

im gonna die in any nyc zips today — its blazing sun and 95 degrees.

i guess no spring this year — right to summer.

that's hot for May wow! We begin melting at 80 on this side of the hill--on the other side it's usually in the 90s and into the 100s during the summer

[ChrisLA]

What’s a/c, I grew up in the city of LA and the first time I ever had it was when I moved out on my own to the Inland Empire into a brand new apartment with central air. I also lived in a fairly new condo in Long Beach for 14 years with no air. They eventually installed central air after I sold my unit and moved out. There were a few days here and there when I would have wanted to have that option but never anything unbearable.

Now that I live in the valley, no way. The valley is not as bad as some say it is, but come August and all of September and sometimes even October you better have it. The good thing is most evenings cools down to sleep comfortably with no a/c running.