In this paper, we appraise sustainable household consumption from a global perspective. Using per capita energy requirements as an indicator of environmental pressure, we focus on the importance of income growth in a cross-country analysis. Our analysis is supported by a detailed within-country analysis encompassing five countries, in which we assess the importance of various socioeconomic-demographic characteristics of household energy requirements. We bring together family expenditure survey data, input-output tables, and energy statistics in a multivariate analysis. Instead of a uniform Kuznet's curve, we find that the effect of increasing income varies considerably across countries, even when controlling for socioeconomic and demographic variations. The latter variables show similar influences, but differing importance across countries. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.