Access to Energy

80% of all US farmers use LPG for a broad range of applications.

According to the 2011 census of India, 28.5% Indian households used LPG as cooking fuel.

Over 30 million European homes and businesses, mainly in rural areas, do not have access to the natural gas grid. For these households, LPG offers a low carbon solution for heating and cooking.

LPG and other gaseous fuels, such as natural gas, lie near the top of what has been called the household “energy ladder” or “fuels ladder”. Observed at large scale and over long periods, there seems to be a relationship between the type of household fuel used and income level or development status.
In poor rural areas, people cannot afford modern fuels, such as electricity or LPG, and still rely on biomass fuels at the lower end of the energy ladder (fuels they can harvest on their own), with wood being the most desirable. Where wood shortages exist, the poorest rely on crop residues or animal dung (fuels further down the ladder).

Generally, when incomes increase, populations shift up the ladder to liquid fuels (such as kerosene) and eventually to gaseous fuels and, in some cases, electricity for household cooking and heating. Although there are exceptions, in general it is accurate to say that fuel cleanliness, controllability, efficiency in use, and cost all increase as populations move up the energy ladder.