Electricity Use per Person by Country — Every Decade Since 1800

Electricity use per person tracks the annual kilowatt-hours consumed by an individual, illuminating the vast energy divide between powering basic human survival and fueling modern, automated lifestyles across the world. As of the 2020s, electricity use per person ranges from 50,613 kWh/year in Iceland to 15.14 kWh/year in Chad across 142 countries. This metric measures the unseen current running through daily existence, shaping everything from heating and refrigeration to heavy industry and digital connection.

The table and chart below track every country MYRIAD covers, decade by decade, starting from an era before modern grids illuminated the globe and extending to the present day. In the modern hierarchy of consumption, nations like Norway at 23,816, Qatar at 18,857, Kuwait at 16,354, Finland at 14,857, the United Arab Emirates at 14,664, Canada at 14,647, the United States at 12,662, Sweden at 12,484, and Saudi Arabia at 11,797 sit near the top, while Panama marks the exact median at 2,463 kWh/year.

Every single row in this dataset links directly to what that specific number meant for a real life born there, stretching from the highest tiers down to the bottom of the ranking where Benin records 107.92, Ethiopia 96.37, Yemen 91.34, Uganda 87.08, Madagascar 77.92, Haiti 75.29, Rwanda 66.07, Niger 61.17, South Sudan 49.24, and Chad 15.14. You can keep exploring further breakdowns for countries like Brazil, China, Germany, India, Japan, Nigeria, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Where do YOU rank among everyone ever born?