Countries That Consume the Most Electricity (Ranked)

The countries that consume the most electricity are China, the United States, and India, with China far ahead. In 2024, Ember's dataset puts Chinese demand at about 10,070 terawatt-hours (TWh), roughly 33 percent of the world's 30,930 TWh, from a country with about 17 percent of the world's people. The United States is second at about 4,405 TWh and India third at about 2,034 TWh. Ranking by total, though, mostly measures population and industry; ranking per person produces a very different list, and both are covered below.

What "electricity consumption" means and where the numbers come from

A terawatt-hour is a billion kilowatt-hours, the unit on a household bill. One TWh runs about 100,000 average US homes for a year, give or take, which is a handy way to see that 10,070 TWh is an enormous quantity. This article ranks countries by electricity demand in 2024 using Ember's country data, as published through Our World in Data. Ember is an independent energy think tank that compiles national statistics, and it puts world demand in 2024 at 30,930 TWh.

Different sources produce different totals, and the gap is not always small. China's National Energy Administration reported that national electricity consumption in 2024 was 9.85 trillion kilowatt-hours (9,850 TWh), up 6.8 percent from the year before. Ember's figure for the same country, about 10,070 TWh, is roughly 2 percent higher. Neither is wrong; they are built on different definitions and data vintages. The practical rule is to compare countries within one dataset, which is what the table below does.

Growth rates also vary by source. Ember reports global demand growth of 4.0 percent in 2024, up from 2.6 percent in 2023. The International Energy Agency (IEA), using its own methods, reports 4.3 percent for 2024 against 2.5 percent in 2023. When two good sources disagree by a few tenths of a percentage point, that is normal.

The top 20 countries by total electricity demand, 2024

Rank	Country	Demand (TWh)	Share of world	Data year and source
1	China	10,070	32.6%	2024, Ember
2	United States	4,405	14.2%	2024, Ember
3	India	2,034	6.6%	2024, Ember
4	Russia	1,193	3.9%	2024, Ember
5	Japan	1,016	3.3%	2024, Ember
6	Brazil	757	2.4%	2024, Ember
7	South Korea	625	2.0%	2024, Ember
8	Canada	624	2.0%	2024, Ember
9	Germany	522	1.7%	2024, Ember
10	France	472	1.5%	2024, Ember
11	Saudi Arabia	455	1.5%	2024, Ember
12	Iran	393	1.3%	2024, Ember
13	Indonesia	373	1.2%	2024, Ember
14	Mexico	355	1.1%	2024, Ember
15	Turkey	340	1.1%	2024, Ember
16	Italy	319	1.0%	2024, Ember
17	United Kingdom	317	1.0%	2024, Ember
18	Vietnam	307	1.0%	2024, Ember
19	Taiwan	289	0.9%	2024, Ember
20	Australia	282	0.9%	2024, Ember

World total: 30,930 TWh (2024). Shares calculated from Ember's figures as published by Our World in Data. Figures rounded.

Two things stand out. First, China and the United States together account for about 47 percent of world demand, and China alone uses more than twice as much as the United States (10,070 versus 4,405 TWh). Second, the list below the top three is crowded: from Germany at rank 9 down to Australia at rank 20, each country uses between roughly 0.9 and 1.7 percent of the world total. Small shifts in weather or industrial output can reshuffle that part of the table from year to year.

For comparison with other national rankings, see countries with the largest economies by GDP, since economic size and electricity use are related but far from identical.

Why China uses a third of the world's electricity

Think of a country's electricity use as the bill at a restaurant table. A table of 1.4 billion people with the world's largest factory floor attached will run up a large bill, even if each diner orders modestly. That is China's situation. Per person, Chinese consumption (about 7.1 MWh a year in Ember's data) is not exceptional. In total it is enormous.

The IEA's Electricity 2025 report supplies the context. Chinese demand grew 7 percent in 2024 and is forecast to average 6 percent a year to 2027, and China accounted for more than half of global demand growth in 2024. Electricity supplies 28 percent of China's final energy consumption, compared with 22 percent in the United States and 21 percent in the European Union. Industry accounted for almost half of China's demand growth in 2022 to 2024 and buildings for about 40 percent (IEA, Electricity 2025).

Heavy industry is the reason. China produced 1,005.1 million tonnes of crude steel in 2024, about 53 percent of the 1,882.6 million tonnes made worldwide, according to the World Steel Association (worldsteel, as reported by Air Freight News). Steel, cement, aluminum, and chemicals are all electricity-hungry, and a large share of what the world buys is made there.

Newer sources of demand are growing faster. The IEA reports that Chinese data centers used over 100 TWh in 2024 and could double their consumption by 2027, with a wide range of uncertainty. They contributed about 3 percent of demand growth in 2022 to 2024, which could rise to 6 percent. Transport is shifting as well: China's Ministry of Public Security reported 31.4 million new energy vehicles in use at the end of 2024, 8.9 percent of national vehicle ownership (China Services Info, January 17, 2025). The term covers battery-electric, plug-in hybrid, and fuel-cell vehicles.

On supply, the IEA expects renewables to meet around 90 percent of China's new demand. Coal remains a very large part of the Chinese power mix, yet Ember reports that China accounted for 53 percent of the global increase in solar generation in 2024, so the country is at once a heavy coal user and the biggest source of new solar output. Our ranking of countries that produce the most solar power covers the supply side.

The United States: flat for years, now rising again

American electricity demand tells a more complicated story. From 2007 through 2019, US electricity use was "essentially flat," as the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy described it, even while the economy and population grew significantly; the group credits efficiency, including LED lighting, better air conditioners, appliance standards, and building codes (ACEEE). An earlier analysis by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) added that industrial sales were falling, and that smaller homes and shifts toward apartments mattered too.

That plateau has ended. The IEA reports that US demand grew 2 percent in 2024 to a record, after a 1.8 percent decline in 2023, and forecasts about 2 percent growth a year through 2027, which would add roughly California's entire demand over that period. Ember counts 4,405 TWh for 2024.

What is the new driver? Data centers are a large part of it. A report from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, released by the US Department of Energy in December 2024, estimated that data centers used about 4.4 percent of US electricity in 2023 (176 TWh, up from 58 TWh in 2014). By 2028 the range was 6.7 to 12 percent, or 325 to 580 TWh (DOE). The wide range reflects real uncertainty about how fast AI hardware gets built. We take a closer look at the physics and economics in how AI data centers use electricity and the geography in countries with the most data centers.

The mix of sources has shifted too. By EIA's most recent annual figures, US utility-scale generation was about 4.43 trillion kWh, with natural gas near 41 percent, nuclear about 18 percent, coal about 17 percent, wind about 11 percent, solar about 7 percent, and conventional hydropower about 6 percent (EIA, Electricity in the US). Those are 2025 shares; the coal share was lower in 2024, which is a reminder that the trend is not a one-way street.

India: third in total, far down the per-person list

India uses about 2,034 TWh, or around one-fifth of China's total, with a population that is comparable. The gap is the single most important number in this article for the next decade. Per person, India uses about 1.4 MWh a year, compared with about 3.8 MWh for the world average and 12.8 MWh for the United States (Ember via Our World in Data).

Growth is the story. The IEA forecasts that Indian demand will grow 6.3 percent a year on average over the next three years, against a 5 percent average from 2015 to 2024. Ember's India profile reports that wind and solar together provided 14 percent of Indian electricity in 2025, and that coal generation fell 2.9 percent that year, with all of the additional demand met from clean sources. One low-demand year does not make a trend, but it shows how fast the mix can move when solar is cheap.

Coal remains the backbone of Indian power, and the question of how much of the future growth gets met by coal, solar, wind, hydro, or nuclear shapes global emissions. For related rankings, see countries with the most renewable energy percentage and countries with the most wind power capacity.

The rest of the top ten

Russia, in fourth place at 1,193 TWh, has a cold climate, a large heavy-industry base, and a big nuclear and gas fleet. Japan (1,016 TWh) ranks fifth. Brazil (757 TWh) is sixth and notable for a power system that leans heavily on hydropower. South Korea (625 TWh) and Canada (624 TWh) are nearly tied, but for different reasons: South Korea runs on semiconductors, steel, and petrochemicals, while Canada has a cold climate, a small population spread across a very large country, and heavy industry such as mining and aluminum.

Germany (522 TWh) and France (472 TWh) show how two neighbors of similar size can differ. France uses more electricity per person (about 7.1 MWh versus 6.2 MWh for Germany), partly because electric heating is common there. Saudi Arabia (455 TWh) and Iran (393 TWh) complete the top 12, two hot-climate countries where cooling pushes demand up.

The IEA flags one major driver across advanced and emerging markets alike: buildings. In 2024 buildings added over 600 TWh of demand, nearly 60 percent of total growth, with air conditioning and new data centers as the main drivers. Industry accounted for nearly 40 percent of growth, and transport rose over 8 percent, driven by electric vehicles (IEA, Global Energy Review 2025).

Per person, the ranking turns upside down

Total demand rewards big populations. Dividing by population shows which societies use the most electricity in daily life and heavy industry combined. Here are 2024 values in megawatt-hours per person per year from Ember's data on Our World in Data.

Country or region	Demand per person (MWh/year)	Note
Iceland	48.4	Heavy industry on abundant geothermal and hydro power
Norway	24.9	Cold climate, widespread electric heating
Bahrain	23.9	Small Gulf state with hot climate
Kuwait	18.7	Hot climate
Qatar	18.6	Energy-intensive industry and cooling
United Arab Emirates	16.1	Cooling and energy-intensive industry
Canada	15.7	Cold climate, mining and metals
Finland	15.3	Cold climate, forest products
Saudi Arabia	13.4	Cooling and industry
United States	12.8	Large homes, air conditioning, industry
South Korea	12.1	Manufacturing, semiconductors
Australia	10.5	Mining and cooling
Russia	8.2	Cold climate, heavy industry
Japan	8.2	Efficient, but highly industrialized
China	7.1	Manufacturing-heavy
France	7.1	Electric heating
Germany	6.2	Efficient; industry shrinking
Brazil	3.6	Still growing
World average	3.8
India	1.4	Large population, lower income
Nigeria	0.15	Many people without reliable supply

Source: Ember data via Our World in Data, 2024. Notes are interpretive, not from the data.

Iceland is the outlier at about 48 MWh per person, roughly 13 times the world average. Its main reason is not that Icelanders are profligate. Cheap geothermal and hydroelectric power attracted aluminum smelters, which turn imported alumina into metal, and industry, mainly aluminum smelting, takes most of the country's electricity. Without the smelters the per-person number would look much more like Norway's.

Look at China and India in the table. Their combined populations make up roughly 35 percent of humanity, yet their per-person figures are 7.1 and 1.4 MWh. If India's per-person use rose to China's current level, India would add roughly 8,000 TWh to world demand, about four times its present total and not far short of today's Chinese consumption. This is simple arithmetic rather than a forecast, but it shows what is at stake in the Indian growth path.

Several small entries deserve an asterisk. Gulf states and island territories have small populations, so a single aluminum smelter or desalination complex can move their per-person figure sharply. And the 0.15 MWh figure for Nigeria is an average that hides the fact that many people have no electricity, while others run diesel generators that the national statistics do not capture.

Why producers and consumers are not the same list

Electricity crosses borders, and the countries that generate the most power are not always the ones that use it. Ember publishes both measures, and the difference between them is a quick test of whether a country is a net exporter. France generates about 8.4 MWh per person but uses about 7.1 MWh, so it is a net exporter. Norway generates 28.2 MWh per person and uses 24.9 MWh. Germany, meanwhile, generates about 5.9 MWh and uses 6.2 MWh, so it is a net importer (Ember via Our World in Data).

Why does the distinction matter? Because a national ranking of consumption tells you about households, factories, and offices inside the border, while a ranking of generation tells you about power plants. If you are asking "who needs the most power?", use consumption. If you are asking "who emits the most from making it?", use generation, and see countries with the highest CO2 emissions.

A rough analogy: imagine two neighboring towns where one has a bakery that sells bread across the river. Counting the loaves baked tells you about the baker; counting the loaves eaten tells you about the town. Electricity trade works the same way, only the bakery cannot store bread for long, which is part of why grid storage is hard.

A thought experiment: the same electricity bill for everyone

Per-person figures invite an obvious question about how large world demand would be if everyone lived like the heaviest users. This is arithmetic on the 2024 numbers, not a forecast. World demand of 30,930 TWh and an average of 3.79 MWh per person imply a population of about 8.2 billion. If all of them used electricity at the US rate of 12.75 MWh per person, world demand would be roughly 104,000 TWh, about 3.4 times today's total.

Run it the other way and the picture is just as stark. If everyone used electricity at India's present rate of 1.4 MWh per person, world demand would fall to around 11,400 TWh, a little over a third of today's total. Most of the world's people live somewhere between those two numbers, and the direction of travel is upward almost everywhere.

That is why electricity planners treat the middle-income countries as the main swing factor. A rise of a few MWh per person in India, Indonesia, Vietnam, or Nigeria matters more to the world total than any plausible change in Iceland or Norway. It also explains why the IEA expects emerging economies to supply about 85 percent of demand growth through 2027, a figure discussed in the next section.

Where the next 3,500 TWh will come from

The IEA's central forecast is that global electricity demand will keep growing at close to 4 percent a year through 2027, adding an unprecedented 3,500 TWh in three years. That works out to roughly 1,170 TWh a year, which the agency compares to adding Japan's annual consumption each year. Emerging economies are expected to account for about 85 percent of that growth, and advanced economies for about 15 percent (IEA, Electricity 2025).

Meeting it is mostly a story about solar and wind. The IEA expects renewables and nuclear to meet all additional global demand through 2027, with renewables alone covering about 95 percent of growth. Solar generation reached 2,000 TWh in 2024, 7 percent of global output, and is expected to meet roughly half of demand growth. Ember adds that low-carbon sources supplied 40.9 percent of world generation in 2024, up from 39.4 percent in 2023, and that global solar capacity reached 2 terawatts, two years after reaching 1 terawatt.

Heat and cooling matter more than most people realize. Ember estimates that hotter weather added 0.7 percent to demand in 2024, about 208 TWh, and that without the weather effect fossil generation would have risen only 0.2 percent. It also says that electric vehicles, heat pumps, and data centers together added about 0.7 percent to annual demand growth, more than twice their contribution five years earlier (Ember, Global Electricity Review 2025).

For a household-scale view of the same efficiency trend, our guide on how to reduce your electricity bill explains what drives usage at the meter.

What the ranking does not tell you

Electricity is not total energy. Electricity is one form of energy; countries also burn oil for transport, gas for heating, and coal in industry. The IEA's numbers on how much of final energy is electric show the variation: 28 percent in China, 22 percent in the United States, and 21 percent in the EU. A country can rank high on electricity because it electrified its economy rather than because it uses a lot of energy overall.

Efficiency can hide behind the total. A country that makes the same goods with less power does not show up as a leader. ACEEE's explanation of US flat demand is that efficiency allows "more work to be done with less energy." Electricity use per dollar of GDP, rather than total consumption, is the number to watch for efficiency.

Higher is not automatically better. Electricity access is a development issue; the IEA notes that about 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa still lack reliable electricity. At the other end, high-income countries show wide variation, from Germany at 6.2 MWh to the United States at 12.8 MWh, with broadly comparable living standards. The link between electricity use and prosperity is strong at low incomes and weak at high ones.

One year is a snapshot. Weather shifts the numbers. A hot summer can add several percent to demand, and a recession can cut industrial use. Data for the most recent year are often revised, so treat the third digit of any figure as provisional.

Rankings are not equal to emissions. A big consumer with clean power is a different case from a smaller consumer relying on coal. For that side of the question, see countries with the most nuclear power and countries with the most electric vehicles, which look at what electricity is made from and what it is used for.

The takeaway

Global electricity demand reached about 30,930 TWh in 2024, and a third of it was used in a single country. The totals are driven by population and industry, which is why China, the United States, and India top the table, while the per-person ranking is led by Iceland, Norway, and the Gulf states, where cheap power or harsh climates push use high. The most important number for the coming decade is not China's 10,070 TWh but India's 1.4 MWh per person. If it climbs the way China's did, and if the demand growth the IEA forecasts materializes, the decisions made about where that electricity comes from will shape global emissions. The ranking is a snapshot of where the lights are on, and the shape of the next one depends on who builds what.

Frequently asked questions

Q: Which country uses the most electricity? A: China, with about 10,070 TWh in 2024 according to Ember data, roughly 33 percent of the world's 30,930 TWh. China's National Energy Administration reports a slightly lower national total of 9.85 trillion kWh, so the exact figure depends on the source, but the rank is not in dispute. The United States is second at about 4,405 TWh.

Q: Which country uses the most electricity per person? A: Iceland leads at about 48.4 MWh per person per year in Ember's 2024 data, followed by Norway at 24.9 and Bahrain at 23.9. The world average is about 3.8 MWh. Iceland's figure is driven mainly by aluminum smelting powered by geothermal and hydro generation.

Q: Is electricity consumption the same as electricity generation? A: No. Generation counts what power plants produce inside a country; consumption (or demand) counts what is used there, so the two differ by net trade. France generates about 8.4 MWh per person and uses about 7.1, making it a net exporter. Germany generates about 5.9 MWh and uses about 6.2, making it a net importer.

Q: Why is US electricity use per person so much higher than Germany's? A: The data show a per-person gap of 12.8 MWh versus 6.2 MWh. Commonly cited explanations include larger homes, heavy use of air conditioning, and a bigger energy-intensive industrial base in the United States, set against strong efficiency policy in Germany. The Ember figures do not isolate any single cause.

Q: How fast is global electricity demand growing? A: Ember reports 4.0 percent growth in 2024 and the IEA reports 4.3 percent. The IEA forecasts growth of close to 4 percent a year through 2027, adding about 3,500 TWh over three years. Emerging economies are expected to account for about 85 percent of that growth.

Q: How much electricity do data centers use? A: In the United States, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimated 176 TWh in 2023, about 4.4 percent of US electricity, with a projected range of 325 to 580 TWh (6.7 to 12 percent) in 2028. The IEA reports Chinese data centers used over 100 TWh in 2024. Projections carry wide uncertainty.

Sources

• Ember, electricity demand by country, 2024, via Our World in Data: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/electricity-demand
• Ember, per-capita electricity demand, 2024, via Our World in Data: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/per-capita-electricity-demand
• Ember, per-capita electricity generation, 2024, via Our World in Data: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/per-capita-electricity-generation
• Ember, Global Electricity Review 2025: https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/global-electricity-review-2025/
• IEA, Electricity 2025, executive summary: https://www.iea.org/reports/electricity-2025/executive-summary
• IEA, Global Energy Review 2025, electricity: https://www.iea.org/reports/global-energy-review-2025/electricity
• China National Energy Administration, 2024 power consumption (as reported by the Chinese government): https://english.www.gov.cn/archive/statistics/202501/20/content_WS678e47f8c6d0868f4e8ef000.html
• US Department of Energy, "DOE Releases New Report Evaluating Increase in Electricity Demand from Data Centers" (December 20, 2024): https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-releases-new-report-evaluating-increase-electricity-demand-data-centers
• US Energy Information Administration, Electricity in the US: https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/electricity-in-the-us.php
• ACEEE, "2019 Electricity Sales Continue Decade-Long Flat Trend": https://www.aceee.org/news/2019-electricity-sales-continue-decade-long-flat-trend/
• Ember, India country profile: https://ember-energy.org/countries-and-regions/india/
• worldsteel 2024 crude steel totals, as reported by Air Freight News: https://airfreight.news/articles/full/december-2024-crude-steel-production-and-2024-global-crude-steel-production-totals

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