Does everyone have access to electricity?
Access to electricity is a key to reducing poverty and improving the lives of millions of people. When areas are electrified, entire communities are improved with basic
necessities like powering schools, hospitals, homes, water purifiers, irrigation systems and virtually every other aspect of modern life.
Twenty years ago over 20% of the worlds population lived without access to electricity. Today that number has been cut in half. Since developed countries have already
achieved electricity access for its citizens, any worldwide growth occurs in low income and developing countries. But the growth of electricity
access is very uneven, even within a single developing region like Sub-Saharan Africa. For instance, less than 10% of people from Gabon lack access to electricity,
while over 93% of people from South Sudan lack access.
The chart below shows the number of people without access to electricity, compared to the total population. Explore for yourself and see how access
to electricity access has changed over time.
Source: The World Bank - World Development Indicators (data not available for every year for each country)
How is electricity generated around the world?
Providing electricity to those without is a major goal of the United Nations. It is one way to lift people out of the cycle of poverty.
Even with the recent gains, providing electricity to those without remains challenging since they usually live in remote areas, are poor, or both.
The size of the problem remains large and solving it will take a combination of all types of energy: both renewable and nonrenewable sources.
Nonrenewable sources continue to provide the vast majority of the worlds electricity and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
But with a heightened awareness that burning fossil fuels contributes to climate change, there is a desire to increase the amount of renewable energy.
And while renewable energy production has increased, that growth is barely keeping up with the total increase in demand.
Explore the chart below to see how electricity is generated around the world, and if it has changed over time.
