Electric energy consumption

Electricity consumption by region. By 2025, Asia is projected to account for half of the world’s electricity consumption, with one-third of global electricity to be consumed in China.<ref name=IEA_ElectricityMarketReport_2023>"Electricity Market Report 2023" (PDF). IEA.org. International Energy Agency. February 2023. p. 15. Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 March 2023. Licensed CC BY 4.0.</ref>

Electric energy consumption is energy consumption in the form of electrical energy.<ref name=":1">"Electricity explained: Use of electricity - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)". www.eia.gov. Archived from the original on 2019-09-16. Retrieved 2022-01-22.</ref> About a fifth of global energy is consumed as electricity: for residential, industrial, commercial, transportation and other purposes.<ref name=":1" /> Quickly increasing this share by further electrification is extremely important to limit climate change,<ref>"Electrification – Analysis". IEA. Retrieved 2023-04-11.</ref> because most other energy is consumed by burning fossil fuels thus emitting greenhouse gases which trap heat.<ref>Ritchie, Hannah; Roser, Max; Rosado, Pablo (2022-10-27). "Energy". Our World in Data.</ref>

The global electricity consumption in 2022 was 24,398 terawatt-hour (TWh), almost exactly three times the amount of consumption in 1981 (8,132 TWh).<ref name=":0">"Electricity consumption – Electricity Information: Overview – Analysis". IEA. Retrieved 2022-01-22.</ref> China, the United States, India and Japan accounted for more than half of the global share of electricity consumption.<ref name=":0" />

Overview

Electric energy is most often measured either in joules (J), or in watt hours (W·h).<ref>"Energy Units". www.aps.org. Retrieved 2022-01-23.</ref>

1 W·s = 1 J

1 W·h = 3,600 W·s = 3,600 J

1 kWh = 3,600 kWs = 1,000 Wh = 3.6 million W·s = 3.6 million J

Electric and electronic devices consume electric energy to generate desired output (light, heat, motion, etc.). During operation, some part of the energy is lost depending on the electrical efficiency.<ref>"Electricity – Sustainable Recovery – Analysis". IEA. Retrieved 2022-02-10.</ref>

Electricity has been generated in power stations since 1882.<ref>"Electricity Generation". Institute for Energy Research. Institute for Energy Research. 2 September 2014. Retrieved 27 October 2015.</ref> The invention of the steam turbine in 1884 to drive the electric generator led to an increase in worldwide electricity consumption.<ref>"Catalog of CHP Technologies: Section 4. Technology Characterization – Steam Turbines" (PDF). www.epa.gov. March 2015. Retrieved January 23, 2022.</ref>

In 2022, the total worldwide electricity production was nearly 29,000 TWh.<ref name=":2" /> Total primary energy is converted into numerous forms, including, but not limited to, electricity, heat and motion.<ref name=":7">"More than 60% of energy used for electricity generation is lost in conversion - Today in Energy - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)". www.eia.gov. Retrieved 2022-02-10.</ref> Some primary energy is lost during the conversion to electricity, as seen in the United States, where a little more than 60% was lost in 2022.<ref name=":7" />

Electricity accounted for more than 20% of worldwide final energy consumption in 2022, with oil being less than 40%, coal being less than 9%, natural gas being less than 15%, biofuels and waste less than 10%, and other sources (such as heat, solar electricity, wind electricity and geothermal) being more than 5%.<ref name=":8">"Key World Energy Statistics 2021 – Analysis". IEA. Retrieved 2022-02-16.</ref> The total final electricity consumption in 2022 was split unevenly between the following sectors: industry (42.2%), residential (26.8%), commercial and public services (21.1%), transport (1.8%), and other (8.1%; i.e., agriculture and fishing).<ref name=":8" /> In 1981, the final electricity consumption continued to decrease in the industrial sector and increase in the residential, commercial and public services sectors.<ref name=":8" />

A sensitivity analysis on an adaptive neuro-fuzzy network model for electric demand estimation shows that employment is the most critical factor influencing electrical consumption.<ref name=":9">Zahedi, Gholamreza; Azizi, Saeed; Bahadori, Alireza; Elkamel, Ali; R. Wan Alwi, Sharifah (2013). "Electricity demand estimation using an adaptive neuro-fuzzy network: A case study from the Ontario province – Canada". Energy. 49: 323–328. doi:10.1016/j.energy.2012.10.019.</ref> The study used six parameters as input data, employment, GDP, dwelling, population, heating degree day and cooling degree day, with electricity demand as output variable.<ref name=":9" />

World electricity consumption

See also: List of countries by electricity consumption

The table lists 45 electricity-consuming countries, which used about 22,000 TWh. These countries comprise about 90% of the final consumption of 190+ countries. The final consumption to generate this electricity is provided for every country. The data is from 2022.<ref name=":2">"Data tables – Data & Statistics". IEA. Archived from the original on 2022-01-19. Retrieved 2022-01-25.</ref><ref name=":3">"Population, total | Data". data.worldbank.org. Retrieved 2022-01-25.</ref>

In 2022, OECD's final electricity consumption was over 10,000 TWh.<ref name=":0" /> In that year, the industrial sector consumed about 42.2% of the electricity, with the residential sector consuming nearly 26.8%, the commercial and public services sectors consuming about 21.1%, the transport sector consuming nearly 1.8%, and the other sectors (such as agriculture and fishing) consuming nearly 8.1%.<ref name=":8" /> In recent decades, the consumption in the residential and commercial and public services sectors has grown, while the industry consumption has declined.<ref name=":0" /> More recently, the transport sector has witnessed an increase in consumption with the growth in the electric vehicle market.<ref name=":0" />

Rank Data 2022	Country	Final consumption (TWh)	Population (millions)	Per capita consumption (MWh)
—	WORLD	24,398	7,960	3.07
1	China	7,214	1,443	5
2	United States	4,272	336	12.71
3	India	1,403	1,401	1
4	Japan	1,132	126	8.98
5	Russia	934	146	6.4
6	Canada	595	38.1	15.62
7	South Korea	553	51.2	10.8
8	Brazil	550	215	2.56
9	Germany	539	82.2	6.55
10	France	463	67.7	6.84
11	Saudi Arabia	317	36	8.81
12	United Kingdom	312	68.4	4.56
13	Indonesia	308	276	1.17
14	Italy	300	60	5
15	Mexico	296	127	2.33
16	Iran	280	83.3	3.36
17	Turkey	264	84	3.14
18	Taiwan	257	23.8<ref name=":4">"National Statistics, Republic of China (Taiwan)". eng.stat.gov.tw. Retrieved 2022-01-25.</ref>	10.8
19	Spain	246	46.8	5.26
20	South Africa	233	60	3.88
21	Australia	225	26	8.65
22	Vietnam	220	100	2.2
23	Thailand	203	70	2.9
24	Malaysia	170	33.2	5.12
25	Egypt	168	105	1.6
26	Poland	156	37.5	4.17
27	Ukraine	154	43.2	3.56
28	Sweden	147	10.2	14.4
29	Argentina	138	46	3
30	United Arab Emirates	136	10.2	13.33
31	Norway	128	5.5	23.27
32	Pakistan	124	226	0.55
33	Netherlands	120	17.5	6.86
34	Belgium	98	11.8	8.33
35	Finland	90	5.6	16.03
36	Chile	84	19.2	4.38
37	Kazakhstan	75	18.7	4
38	Austria	73	9.1	8.02
39	Venezuela	72	28.1	2.56
40	Algeria	66	44	1.5
41	Switzerland	62	9.3	6.67
42	Israel	59	9.4	6.27
43	New Zealand	43	5	8.6
44	Denmark	35	5.8	6.02
45	Ireland	28	5.5	5.1

Consumption per capita

The final consumption divided by the number of inhabitants provides a country's consumption per capita. In Western Europe, this is between 4 and 8 MWh/year.<ref name=":2" /> (1 MWh = 1,000 kWh) In Scandinavia, the United States, Canada, Taiwan, South Korea, Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom, the per capita consumption is higher; however, in developing countries, it is much lower.<ref name=":2" /> The world's average was about 3 MWh/year in 2022.<ref name=":2" /> Very low consumption levels, such as those in Philippines, not included in the table, indicate that many inhabitants are not connected to the electricity grid, and that is the reason why some of the world's most populous countries, incl. Nigeria and Bangladesh, do not appear in the table.<ref name=":3" />

Electricity generation and GDP

The table lists 30 countries, which represent about 76% of the world population, 84% of the world GDP, and 85% of the world electricity generation.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /><ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6" /> Productivity per electricity generation (concept similar to energy intensity) can be measured by dividing GDP over the electricity generated. The data is from 2019.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /><ref name=":5">"GDP (current US$) | Data". data.worldbank.org. Retrieved 2022-02-02.</ref><ref name=":6">"Statistical Review of World Energy | Energy economics | Home". bp global. Retrieved 2022-02-03.</ref>

Electricity Generation (2019) and GDP (PPP) (2019)

Country	Population, millions	rank*	GDP (PPP), billions (USD)	rank*	GDP (PPP) per capita	rank*	Electricity generation (GWh/yr)	rank*	GDP (PPP) /kWh*
China	1,407	1	$14,280	2	$10,149	15	7,503,428	1	$1.9
India	1,366	2	$2,871	6	$2,102	26	1,603,675	3	$1.8
USA	328	3	$21,433	1	$65,345	1	4,411,159	2	$4.9
Indonesia	270.6	4	$1,119	16	$4,135	20	278,942	17	$4.0
Brazil	211	6	$1,878	9	$8,900	18	626,328	7	$3.0
Pakistan	216.6	5	$279	26	$1,288	28	138,626	24	$2.0
Bangladesh	163	8	$302	25	$1,853	27	89,672	27	$3.4
Nigeria	201	7	$448	22	$2,229	25	33,552<ref>"Energy Profile: Nigeria" (PDF). International Renewable Energy Agency. September 29, 2021. Retrieved February 2, 2022.</ref>	28	$13.4
Russia	144	9	$1,687	11	$11,715	14	1,118,143	4	$1.5
Japan	126	11	$5,149	3	$40,865	7	1,030,286	5	$5.0
Mexico	127.6	10	$1,269	15	$9,945	16	322,584	13	$3.9
Philippines	108	13	$377	23	$3,491	21	106,041	26	$3.6
Vietnam	96.5	15	$262	27	$2,715	24	227,461	21	$1.2
Ethiopia	112	12	$96	29	$857	29	14,553<ref>"Energy Profile: Ethiopia". International Renewable Energy Agency. September 29, 2021. Retrieved February 2, 2022.</ref>	29	$6.6
Egypt	100.4	14	$303	24	$3,018	23	200,563	22	$1.5
Germany	83	18	$3,888	4	$46,843	4	609,406	8	$6.4
Turkey	83.5	17	$761	19	$9,114	17	303,898	15	$2.5
DR Congo	86.8	16	$50	30	$576	30	9,990<ref>"Energy Profile: Democratic Republic of the Congo" (PDF). International Renewable Energy Agency. September 29, 2021. Retrieved February 2, 2022.</ref>	30	$5.0
Iran	83	19	$258	28	$3,108	22	318,696	14	$0.8
Thailand	69.6	20	$544	21	$7,816	19	186,503	23	$2.9
France	67.3	21	$2,729	7	$40,550	8	562,842	10	$4.8
UK	66.8	22	$2,879	5	$43,099	6	324,761	12	$8.9
Italy	59.7	23	$2,009	8	$33,652	9	293,853	16	$6.8
South Korea	51.7	24	$1,651	12	$31,934	10	585,301	9	$2.8
Spain	47.1	25	$1,393	13	$29,575	11	267,501	19	$5.2
Canada	37.6	26	$1,742	10	$46,330	5	648,676	6	$2.7
Saudi Arabia	34.3	27	$793	18	$23,120	13	343,661	11	$2.3
Taiwan	23.6<ref name=":4" />	28	$605<ref>"National Statistics, Republic of China (Taiwan)". eng.stat.gov.tw. Retrieved 2022-02-02.</ref>	20	$25,636	12	274,059	18	$2.2
Australia	25.4	29	$1,392	14	$54,803	2	265,901	20	$5.2
Netherlands	17.3	30	$910	17	$52,601	3	121,062	25	$7.5
World	7,683	—	$87,555	—	$11,395	—	27,044,191	—	$3.5
Population data is from the World Bank<ref name=":3" /> GDP data is from the World Bank<ref name=":5" /> Electricity data is from BP Global<ref name=":6" /> rank* of Population, GDP, and Electricity generation are rankings within this list GDP (PPP) / kWh is the amount of GDP (PPP) (USD) produced per kilowatt-hour

Electricity consumption by sector

The table below lists the 15 countries with the highest final electricity consumption, which comprised more than 70% of the global consumption in 2022.<ref name=":2" />

Electricity Final Consumption by Sector (2022)

Country/ Geographical Region	Total (TWh)	Industry	Transport	Commercial /Public Services	Residential	Agriculture /Forestry	other
China	7,214	59.9%	2.4%	7.3%	16.4%	2.2%	11.8%
United States	4,272	19.9%	0.6%	35.2%	37.4%	2.1%	4.8%
India	1,403	37.7%	11.2%	7.8%	21.7%	15.9%	5.7%
Japan	1,132	37%	1.8%	33.7%	27.1%	0.3%	0.1%
Russia	934	44.8%	11.1%	20.4%	21.1%	2.5%	0.1%
Canada	595	35.9%	1.5%	28.1%	32.5%	2.0%	0%
South Korea	553	52.3%	0.6%	31.4%	12.7%	2.5%	0.5%
Brazil	550	38.3%	0.7%	27.3%	27.7%	6%	0%
Germany	539	44.8%	2.3%	26.4%	25.4%	1.1%	0%
France	463	26.9%	2.4%	31.5%	37%	1.9%	0.3%
Saudi Arabia	317	33.7%	3.9%	28.3%	25%	4.1%	5%
United Kingdom	312	18.3%	2.2%	38.2%	39.1%	2%	0.2%
Italy	300	30%	5%	32%	30%	1%	2%
Mexico	296	29%	4%	33%	30%	3%	1%
Iran	280	24%	6%	37%	25%	5%	3%
World	24,398	42.2%	1.8%	21.1%	26.8%	3.1%	5%

Electricity outlook

Looking forward, increasing energy efficiency will result in less electricity needed for a given demand in power, but demand will increase strongly on the account of:<ref name=":10">"World Energy Outlook 2021 – Analysis". IEA. Retrieved 2022-02-23.</ref>

• Economic growth in developing countries,<ref name=":10" /> and
• Electrification of transport and heating. Combustion engines are replaced by electric drive and for heating less gas and oil, but more electricity is used, if possible with heat pumps.<ref name=":10" />

As transport and heating become more climate-friendly, the environmental effect of energy consumption will be more determined by electricity.<ref name=":10" />

The International Energy Agency expects revisions of subsidies for fossil fuels which amounted to $550 billion in 2013, more than four times renewable energy subsidies. In this scenario,<ref>IEA World energy outlook</ref> almost half of the increase in 2040 of electricity consumption is covered by more than 80% growth of renewable energy. Many new nuclear plants will be constructed, mainly to replace old ones. The nuclear part of electricity generation will increase from 11 to 12%. The renewable part goes up much more, from 21 to 33%. The IEA warns that in order to restrict global warming to 2 °C, carbon dioxide emissions<ref>by fossil fuel</ref> must not exceed 1000 gigaton (Gt) from 2014. This limit is reached in 2040 and emissions will not drop to zero ever.

The World Energy Council<ref>World energy scenarios</ref> sees world electricity consumption increasing to more than 40,000 TWh/a in 2040. The fossil part of generation depends on energy policy. It can stay around 70% in the so-called Jazz scenario where countries rather independently "improvise" but it can also decrease to around 40% in the Symphony scenario if countries work "orchestrated" for more climate friendly policy. Carbon dioxide emissions, 32 Gt/a in 2012, will increase to 46 Gt/a in Jazz but decrease to 26 Gt/a in Symphony. Accordingly, until 2040 the renewable part of generation will stay at about 20% in Jazz but increase to about 45% in Symphony.

An EU survey conducted on climate and energy consumption in 2022 found that 63% of people in the European Union want energy costs to be dependent on use, with the greatest consumers paying more. This is compared to 83% in China, 63% in the UK and 57% in the US.<ref name=":82">"2022-2023 EIB Climate Survey, part 1 of 2: Majority of Europeans say the war in Ukraine and high energy prices should accelerate the green transition". EIB.org. Retrieved 2022-11-17.</ref><ref>"Energy poverty". energy.ec.europa.eu. Retrieved 2022-11-17.</ref> 24% of Americans surveyed believing that people and businesses should do more to cut their own usage (compared to 20% in the UK, 19% in the EU, and 17% in China).<ref name=":822">"2022-2023 EIB Climate Survey, part 1 of 2: Majority of Europeans say the war in Ukraine and high energy prices should accelerate the green transition". EIB.org. Retrieved 2022-11-17.</ref><ref>"Energy efficiency directive". energy.ec.europa.eu. Retrieved 2022-11-17.</ref>

Nearly half of those polled in the European Union (47%) and the United Kingdom (45%) want their government to focus on the development of renewable energies. This is compared to 37% in both the United States and China when asked to list their priorities on energy.<ref name=":822" /><ref>""Fit for 55": Council agrees on higher targets for renewables and energy efficiency". www.consilium.europa.eu. Retrieved 2022-11-17.</ref><ref>"Share of energy consumption from renewable sources in Europe". www.eea.europa.eu. Retrieved 2022-11-17.</ref>

See also

• Electricity generation
• Electricity retailing
• Energy intensity by country
• List of countries by carbon dioxide emissions
• List of countries by electricity consumption
• List of countries by electricity production
• List of countries by energy consumption per capita
• List of countries by greenhouse gas emissions
• List of countries by renewable electricity production
• List of countries by total primary energy consumption and production
• World energy supply and consumption

External links

• World Electricity production 2012
• World Map and Chart of Energy Consumption by country by Lebanese-economy-forum, World Bank data
• Electricity Information 2019 - IEA