In this report we examine residential energy affordability in rural and small-town America. We analyze how rural household energy burdens—the percentage of household income spent on energy bills—vary across regions and among specific groups. Overall, Americans living in rural areas spend a disproportionally high share of their income on energy bills. Rural households have a median energy burden of 4.4%, compared to the national burden of 3.3%. Rural low-income households are even worse off, shouldering a median energy burden almost three times greater than the burden faced by their higher-income counterparts. Other rural residents hit particularly hard include the elderly, nonwhite, and renting households, and those living in multifamily or manufactured homes.