Most electricity consumed by which countries?

There are a couple of different ways to look at world electricity consumption, and depending on which rubric you use, the results can be quite different. When looking at raw material consumption, it’s usually not surprising that the countries that use the most electricity are also the largest, both in terms of land mass and population. China, the United States, India and Russia usually top this list. However, these numbers don’t always paint an exact picture of how much electricity is used on an individual level; for these purposes one should look at per capita consumption. Iceland is typically the leader in these rankings, followed by the Nordic countries and Canada. These countries tend to have many rural outposts and energy has a long way to travel to reach individual homes and businesses, which can increase overall consumption as well as costs.

Understanding consumer categories

It can be difficult to assign consumption rankings without first collecting a lot of different statistical data. Electricity is used for many different things and is often discharged faster and in larger volumes by industry and large operations than by individuals. Assigning numerical values ​​to countries and localities is usually done in a couple of different ways at the same time. Some authorities look at how much a country uses versus how much it generates, which can provide a scaled view of overall energy exchange. Where the energy comes from is also an important consideration; some are hydroelectric, for example, while others are generated by burning coal and other natural resources.

Top five raw consumers

Tabulating a nation’s usage as a whole is often the easiest way to assign a ranking that uses the most energy. The top five overall users in the world tend to be, in descending order, China; the United States; India; Russia; and Japan. Even in such a short list there is a big disparity between the top and bottom, however. The numbers change slightly each year, but recent estimates put China’s annual consumption at around 5,322,300,000 megawatts per year (MW/hour/year), but Japan’s is usually closer to 859,700,000 MW/hour/year.

Japan is knocked out of the top five by analysts who view the European Union (EU) as a single entity, an increasingly common practice. The EU is made up of many different countries, most of them quite small by themselves. There is a lot that member states share, both economically and environmentally, so at some level it may be useful to look at its consumption as a whole. In these cases, the EU usually ranks third, after the US and ahead of India.

List per capita Heads

Analysts also often look at energy use on a per capita basis, which takes into account factors such as overall population. These types of charts can provide a more descriptive picture of exactly how resources are being used. In almost all cases, the countries that consume the most energy per capita are not the same countries that consume the most overall. The table below shows the top 25 electricity users and their approximate values, in kilowatt hours (kWh).

nation
annual electricity consumption per capita
Iceland
25,127 kWh

Norway
24,861 kWh

Finland
15,812 kWh

Sweden
15,679 kWh

Canada
15,666 kWh

United Arab Emirates
14,714 kWh

Kuwait
13,742 kWh

Luxembourg
13,728 kWh

United States
12,878 kWh

Qatar
10,785 kWh

Australia
9,643 kWh

Liechtenstein
9,544 kWh

Isole Cayman
9,102 kWh

Bermuda
8,652 kWh

New Zeland
8,525 kWh

Bahrain
8,168 kWh

Virgin Islands
7,681 kWh

Belgium
7,604 kWh

Japan
7,432 kWh

Swiss
7,206 kWh

New Caledonia
7,000 kWh

France
6,835 kWh

Austria
6,703 kWh

San Marino
6,653 kWh

Denmark
6,319 kWh

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