The population of Mozambique's capital Maputo relies to a large extent on wood fuel to meet its energy needs. The paper, based on a sample of 168 non-domestic and 240 domestic consumers, shows that domestic households constitute the most important wood fuel users in the city. Domestic consumption is now between 0.9 and 1.0 m(3) of woody biomass per capita, an increase of more than 10% compared to data from the 1980s. This increase occurs despite a growing importance of alternatives such as paraffin, gas and electricity, and can be explained by the substitution of firewood by charcoal. The paper also shows a strong correlation between fuel consumption and socio-economic factors such as household size, area of residence and income. A striking feature is that similar to poorer families higher income households tend to use charcoal in combination with non-woody fuels, contradicting FAO's (1993) "fuel ladder". The paper argues finally that the importance of social economic factors inflicts a dynamism on fuel consumption patterns, which makes it necessary to monitor them on a regular instead of an ad hoc basis, as is the case now. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.