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Within Public Administration, increased attention is being paid to ‘vulnerable citizens’ – groups of citizens who, for reasons beyond their control, are disadvantaged in comparison to other citizens – when consuming public services. Initial research focused on how citizens’ socio-economic background shapes their behaviour and satisfaction. Citizens, however, take decisions within a context, but we know little about how their experiences differ depending on their country of residence. We comparatively analyse the experience of vulnerable citizens in telecommunications and electricity markets in three large European Union countries, selected to represent ‘advanced’, ‘intermediate’ and ‘laggard’ stages of reform. We first establish that citizens’ socio-economic characteristics matter for patterns of expenditure and perceptions of service affordability and then show how citizen vulnerability differs depending on country context. Results are useful to practitioners seeking to target regulation to improve the experiences of vulnerable citizens.Points for practitionersPractitioners recognize that public service reform has brought with it greater market complexity and choice, and that this poses challenges to citizens, particularly vulnerable citizens. Initial empirical work demonstrated that citizens’ socio-economic background affects their satisfaction; however, we know little about how this vulnerability is shaped by country context. We analyse electricity and telecommunications markets in three large European Union countries, establishing that consumers’ socio-economic background matters for citizens’ expenditure and perceptions of service affordability, and then demonstrating that country context also influences these experiences. Less-educated, elderly and non-employed citizens experience more frequent problems with these services than other citizens, and the country context conditions these experiences significantly.