Electricity at Home by Country — Every Decade Since 1800

The quiet hum of a refrigerator or the sudden flash of a desktop lamp is easy to overlook until you trace what a home without it actually means. At MYRIAD, we look at the statistics of human lives to understand the invisible infrastructure that shapes our daily routines, from evening studies to preserved food. Electricity at home defines the boundary between candlelight and modern productivity, framing the domestic spaces where billions of us sleep, eat, and raise our families across generations.

The table and chart below track every country MYRIAD covers, decade by decade, and every row links to what that number meant for a real life born there. As of the 2020s, electricity at home ranges from 100 % in Albania to 48 % in Zimbabwe across 157 countries, according to the World Bank. The historical arc of these figures stretches from the early experiments of the nineteenth century into the vast grid expansions of the modern era, mapping a slow, uneven march toward universal coverage that is still unfolding today.

Where you fall on this vast global spectrum shapes the rhythm of your earliest memories and the practical realities of your working life. The rankings shift dramatically depending on the era and the nation, moving from the top tier—including Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, and the median at Haiti with 97 %—down to the bottom of the ranking shared by Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe at 48 %. Each data point represents the tangible limits of human potential in a specific time and place.

Where do YOU rank among everyone ever born?