PROVIDENCE – You may not want to hear this right after Christmas, but Rhode Island has the highest utility bills in the mainland United States, topped only by Hawaii and Alaska, according to a recent report.
The report by Move.org, a website that researches moving and storage costs, found that utility bills average nearly $522 a month in Rhode Island. That covers five categories: electricity, natural gas, internet, cable television and water. The national average was $422 a month.
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The monthly breakdown of Rhode Island’s total was as follows: electricity ($164), ninth-highest in the nation; natural gas ($141), fourth-highest; internet ($77), second-highest; cable ($100), national average; and water ($40), national average.
In addition, the report found New England has many of the highest utility costs in the nation, as all six New England states were in the top 10.
However, the highest costs by far were found in Hawaii, apparently affected by its remote location more than 2,000 miles away from the U.S. mainland in the Pacific Ocean. The average monthly cost of utilities in Hawaii was nearly $731. That was more than $200 higher than the second-ranked state, Alaska, where utilities totaled nearly $528 a month.
The rest of the top 10 were: Connecticut ($496), New York ($477), New Hampshire ($477), South Carolina ($474), Massachusetts ($469), Vermont ($468), and Maine ($464).
The states with lowest utilities costs were clustered in the western U.S. The 10 lowest in cost were: Idaho ($344), Utah ($350), Montana ($359), Washington ($369), Nevada ($377), Louisiana ($381), Oregon ($381), South Dakota ($383), Arkansas ($388), and Wisconsin ($391).
To calculate electricity and natural gas costs, the report multiplied average national consumption rates by the average costs for those services in each state, although individual bills vary based on consumption. When determining internet costs, it looked at a service level that included speeds of 60 Mbps, unlimited data and asymmetric digital subscriber line.
The state-by-state information for cable and water was not available, so the report used the national averages to arrive at totals for each state.
Scott Blake is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Blake@PBN.com
