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.

The historical arc of electricity access 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. 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 rankings shift dramatically depending on the era and the nation.

Where you fall on this vast global spectrum shapes the rhythm of your earliest memories and the practical realities of your working life, with countries like Haiti at 97 % and others at the bottom of the ranking, such as Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe at 48 %. To explore how your life fits into this global context, compute your own parallel lives on MYRIAD.