Electricity at Home in Sudan: 1800 to Today (and Tomorrow)

Electricity changes the shape of a human day, stretching waking hours past the setting of the sun and powering the quiet infrastructure of modern survival. At MYRIAD, we examine the statistics of human lives through the metric of power in the home. For Sudan, this story spans three centuries, measured not in grand political shifts but in the slow, persistent illumination of domestic spaces. Every percentage point represents millions of households transitioning from darkness to the glow of a single bulb, altering how families cook, study, and remember their lives.

The long arc of this electrification unfolds across generations with agonizing slowness. In the 1800s estimate, the share stood at 0. As decades passed through the 1810s estimate 0.01, the 1820s estimate 0.02, the 1830s estimate 0.03, the 1840s estimate 0.04, the 1850s estimate 0.05, the 1860s estimate 0.06, the 1870s estimate 0.07, the 1880s estimate 0.09, and the 1900s estimate 0.1, the light remained almost entirely absent. Growth crept upward through the mid-century with the 1950s 3 and the 1960s 6, eventually accelerating into the late decades like the 1990s 17.5 and the 2000s 23, reaching the 2020s 48 where electricity at home in Sudan stands at 48 % — ranking #152 of 157 countries. In 1900 it was 0.1 %.

If you were born in the early eras, your home existed in a completely unwired world, relying entirely on fire and candle. By the time the future reaches the 2030s projection 52, the 2040s projection 56, the 2050s projection 60, the 2060s projection 64, the 2070s projection 68, the 2080s projection 72, the 2090s projection 76, and the 2100s projection 80, the domestic reality of Sudan will continue its gradual ascent. This trajectory defines the boundaries of possibility for every child born within its borders, dictating the tools available for learning and labor.

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