Which Countries use the Most Electricity per Person?

Every country depends on electricity to simply get by every day.

Whether it’s to heat homes, keep the lights on for businesses, or run intricate rail networks, nothing happens without electricity and cutting a country’s power supply is effectively pulling the plug on its ability to operate.

Naturally, there are vast differences in energy consumption across the world with richer and more populated countries report greater electricity usage than less affluent and sparser populated regions.

However, annual figures from BP outline energy use per person, and compare the energy consumption for residents in different countries.

Unsurprisingly, richer countries consumed more electricity than poorer ones, with high-income countries using 55,860 kWh per person; that’s over eight times more than lower-middle-income countries (6,565 kWh).

Which Countries Use the Most and Least Energy per Person Globally?

Rank	Highest energy consumption per person	Lowest energy consumption per person
1	Qatar (199,137 kWh)	Somalia (228 kWh)
2	Singapore (161,620 kWh)	Democratic Republic of Congo (388 kWh)
3	Iceland (157,653 kWh)	Niger (449 kWh)
4	United Arab Emirates (134,316 kWh)	Chad (457 kWh)
5	Kuwait (113,650 kWh)	Rwanda (491 kWh)

Source: BP

In 2021, people in Qatar used more energy on average than in another country in the world, with one person typically consuming 199,137 kWh.

Not too far behind was Singapore and Iceland, with 161,620 and 157,653 kWh respectively, while the UAE (134,316 kWh) and Kuwait (113,650 kWh) completed the top five biggest energy consumers per capita.

Europe’s ‘Big Five’

Focusing on the five largest populations in Europe, the UK was found to be the lowest electricity consumer, with Germany being the highest.

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Rank	Country
1	Germany (42,101 kWh)
2	France (40,489 kWh)
3	Spain (32,709 kWh)
4	Italy (29,800 kWh)
5	UK (29,641 kWh)

Source: BP

 

Europe’s Biggest and Lowest Energy Consumers per Person

Rank	Highest energy consumption per person	Lowest energy consumption per person
1	Iceland (157,654 kWh)	Albania (11,294 kWh)
2	Norway (105,148 kWh)	North Macedonia (13,814 kWh)
3	Belgium (65,217 kWh)	Moldova (13,489 kWh)
4	Sweden (60,610 kWh)	Kosovo (15,994 kWh)
5	Russia (59,914 kWh)	Bosnia and Herzegovina (20,694 kWh)

Source: BP

Looking at Europe as a whole, Iceland was found to be the biggest energy consumer, with each resident using 157,654 kWh on average.

However, around 85% of Iceland’s electricity is generated from renewable sources, such as hydropower plants and geothermal energy. As a result, Iceland is the world's largest green energy producer.

Similarly, Norway – Europe’s second largest energy consumer per capita – produces most of its energy by hydroelectricity.

Photo: NASA / Unsplash