  In orbifold gauge theories localized tadpoles can be radiatively generated at
the fixed points where U(1) subgroups are conserved. If the Standard Model
Higgs fields are identified with internal components of the bulk gauge fields
(Higgs-gauge unification) in the presence of these tadpoles the Higgs mass
becomes sensitive to the UV cutoff and electroweak symmetry breaking is
spoiled. We find the general conditions, based on symmetry arguments, for the
absence/presence of localized tadpoles in models with an arbitrary number of
dimensions D. We show that in the class of orbifold compactifications based on
T^{D-4}/Z_N (D even, N>2) tadpoles are always allowed, while on T^{D-4}/\mathbb
Z_2 (arbitrary D) with fermions in arbitrary representations of the bulk gauge
group tadpoles can only appear in D=6 dimensions. We explicitly check this with
one- and two-loops calculations
