placestats

Electricity use per person vs. Fixed broadband

Fades after adjusting for income

Across 189 countries, Electricity use per person and Fixed broadband rise and fall together at r = +0.55 (on a scale from −1 to +1, where 0 means no link). Comparing only countries with similar income (GDP per person) shrinks it to +0.04, which could easily be chance (q = 0.88, allowing for the many pairs tested, and allowing for countries in the same region being alike). So the first figure mostly shows richer countries differing from poorer ones, not a link between these two things. Caution: correlation moves sharply once outliers are trimmed.

Comparing countries across the middle half of electricity use per person, 734 to 5,805 kWh per person, fixed broadband is better by 8.01 per 100 people at the top of that range than the bottom. Comparing only countries with similar national income, the gap is 0.443 per 100 people.

Link before adjusting (r)+0.548p = 3.4e-16 · 189 countries
After adjusting for national income+0.041p = 0.581 · likely range [-0.10, +0.18]
p, allowing for regions0.791standard error 0.146 · 7 regions
Check for luck (q)0.880across 13,797 pairs

How to read these.r runs from −1 (one goes up as the other goes down) to +1 (they rise together), and 0 means no link. Adjusting for national income means comparing countries with the same GDP per person, so differences in wealth can’t explain the link. Income is used in percentage terms, since an extra $1,000 means more to a poor country than to a rich one. p is how likely a link this strong would be if there were really none. Below 0.05 means it is unlikely to be chance. Very small values are written in short form: 1.1e-32 means a decimal point followed by 31 zeros and then 11, so very close to zero. The likely range is where the true figure probably lies, and a range that crosses zero means the link could easily be chance. Countries in the same region tend to resemble each other, so the third figure allows for that, which gives a fairer p. The standard error is the typical size of the error in r. Finally, testing this many pairs means some will look strong by luck alone. A q below 0.05 means this link is unlikely to be one of those.

Electricity use per person · kWh per personlink with income +0.93 · proxy
Fixed broadband · per 100 peoplelink with income +0.88 · proxy

Both of these rise and fall closely with national income, so a strong link between them before adjusting was close to certain. Read the adjusted figure, not the first one.

“Link with income” is how closely each measure tracks GDP per person across countries, from −1 to +1.

Every country as a dot

Electricity use per person · kWh per person →Fixed broadband · per 100 people →18.248,424056.4Aruba: 9,253 kWh per person, 17.5 per 100 peopleAfghanistan: 160 kWh per person, 0.0801 per 100 peopleAngola: 411 kWh per person, 0.363 per 100 peopleAlbania: 3,106 kWh per person, 24.9 per 100 peopleUnited Arab Emirates: 16,053 kWh per person, 40.8 per 100 peopleArgentina: 3,543 kWh per person, 26.1 per 100 peopleArmenia: 2,757 kWh per person, 20.3 per 100 peopleAntigua and Barbuda: 3,945 kWh per person, 10.7 per 100 peopleAustralia: 10,615 kWh per person, 36.5 per 100 peopleAustria: 8,322 kWh per person, 30.1 per 100 peopleAzerbaijan: 2,613 kWh per person, 21.8 per 100 peopleBurundi: 40.6 kWh per person, 0.0203 per 100 peopleBelgium: 7,361 kWh per person, 44.2 per 100 peopleBenin: 160 kWh per person, 0.277 per 100 peopleBurkina Faso: 135 kWh per person, 0.851 per 100 peopleBangladesh: 672 kWh per person, 8.09 per 100 peopleBulgaria: 5,440 kWh per person, 37 per 100 peopleBahrain: 23,919 kWh per person, 17 per 100 peopleBahamas, The: 5,607 kWh per person, 25.3 per 100 peopleBosnia and Herzegovina: 4,599 kWh per person, 29.4 per 100 peopleBelarus: 5,054 kWh per person, 36.3 per 100 peopleBelize: 2,038 kWh per person, 9.75 per 100 peopleBermuda: 9,434 kWh per person, 51.3 per 100 peopleBolivia: 1,083 kWh per person, 12.1 per 100 peopleBrazil: 3,581 kWh per person, 24.1 per 100 peopleBarbados: 3,930 kWh per person, 37.5 per 100 peopleBrunei Darussalam: 12,016 kWh per person, 21.2 per 100 peopleBhutan: 15,742 kWh per person, 2.92 per 100 peopleBotswana: 1,852 kWh per person, 7.44 per 100 peopleCentral African Republic: 27.2 kWh per person, 0.0161 per 100 peopleCanada: 16,090 kWh per person, 42.5 per 100 peopleSwitzerland: 7,262 kWh per person, 47 per 100 peopleChile: 4,456 kWh per person, 23.7 per 100 peopleChina: 7,460 kWh per person, 47.2 per 100 peopleCote d'Ivoire: 315 kWh per person, 1.6 per 100 peopleCameroon: 251 kWh per person, 2.13 per 100 peopleCongo, Dem. Rep.: 159 kWh per person, 0.032 per 100 peopleCongo, Rep.: 850 kWh per person, 1.27 per 100 peopleColombia: 1,715 kWh per person, 17.2 per 100 peopleComoros: 165 kWh per person, 0.388 per 100 peopleCabo Verde: 991 kWh per person, 8.31 per 100 peopleCosta Rica: 2,416 kWh per person, 23.3 per 100 peopleCayman Islands: 9,533 kWh per person, 56.4 per 100 peopleCyprus: 4,311 kWh per person, 37.6 per 100 peopleCzechia: 6,413 kWh per person, 38.9 per 100 peopleGermany: 6,188 kWh per person, 45.6 per 100 peopleDjibouti: 685 kWh per person, 1.47 per 100 peopleDominica: 2,255 kWh per person, 20.9 per 100 peopleDenmark: 6,775 kWh per person, 43.4 per 100 peopleDominican Republic: 1,969 kWh per person, 11.2 per 100 peopleAlgeria: 2,005 kWh per person, 13.3 per 100 peopleEcuador: 2,003 kWh per person, 17.2 per 100 peopleEgypt, Arab Rep.: 2,064 kWh per person, 11.7 per 100 peopleSpain: 5,744 kWh per person, 39.2 per 100 peopleEstonia: 6,948 kWh per person, 35.4 per 100 peopleEthiopia: 229 kWh per person, 0.594 per 100 peopleFinland: 15,610 kWh per person, 36.5 per 100 peopleFiji: 1,238 kWh per person, 1.8 per 100 peopleFrance: 7,152 kWh per person, 48.9 per 100 peopleFaroe Islands: 8,952 kWh per person, 34.6 per 100 peopleGabon: 1,252 kWh per person, 4.69 per 100 peopleUnited Kingdom: 4,621 kWh per person, 42.2 per 100 peopleGeorgia: 3,862 kWh per person, 30.4 per 100 peopleGhana: 634 kWh per person, 0.665 per 100 peopleGuinea: 273 kWh per person, 0.00628 per 100 peopleGambia, The: 185 kWh per person, 0.519 per 100 peopleGuinea-Bissau: 36.3 kWh per person, 0.386 per 100 peopleEquatorial Guinea: 787 kWh per person, 0.101 per 100 peopleGreece: 5,590 kWh per person, 44.7 per 100 peopleGrenada: 2,047 kWh per person, 29.8 per 100 peopleGreenland: 10,740 kWh per person, 32 per 100 peopleGuatemala: 888 kWh per person, 5.34 per 100 peopleGuyana: 1,660 kWh per person, 12.9 per 100 peopleHong Kong SAR, China: 6,583 kWh per person, 40.3 per 100 peopleHonduras: 1,167 kWh per person, 4.58 per 100 peopleCroatia: 5,210 kWh per person, 29.6 per 100 peopleHaiti: 73.1 kWh per person, 0.307 per 100 peopleHungary: 5,077 kWh per person, 37.5 per 100 peopleIndonesia: 1,314 kWh per person, 4.92 per 100 peopleIndia: 1,423 kWh per person, 3.15 per 100 peopleIreland: 7,091 kWh per person, 32.3 per 100 peopleIran, Islamic Rep.: 4,281 kWh per person, 12.1 per 100 peopleIraq: 3,406 kWh per person, 17.6 per 100 peopleIceland: 48,424 kWh per person, 37.5 per 100 peopleIsrael: 7,954 kWh per person, 29.2 per 100 peopleItaly: 5,268 kWh per person, 31.8 per 100 peopleJamaica: 1,733 kWh per person, 16 per 100 peopleJordan: 2,054 kWh per person, 7.02 per 100 peopleJapan: 8,366 kWh per person, 38.6 per 100 peopleKazakhstan: 6,050 kWh per person, 15.3 per 100 peopleKenya: 271 kWh per person, 3.04 per 100 peopleKyrgyz Republic: 2,647 kWh per person, 7.8 per 100 peopleCambodia: 1,254 kWh per person, 4.15 per 100 peopleKiribati: 297 kWh per person, 0.0349 per 100 peopleSt. Kitts and Nevis: 4,908 kWh per person, 46.7 per 100 peopleKorea, Rep.: 12,090 kWh per person, 47.8 per 100 peopleKuwait: 18,402 kWh per person, 1.01 per 100 peopleLao PDR: 2,009 kWh per person, 2.72 per 100 peopleLebanon: 920 kWh per person, 7.29 per 100 peopleLiberia: 102 kWh per person, 0.275 per 100 peopleLibya: 4,686 kWh per person, 4.52 per 100 peopleSt. Lucia: 2,225 kWh per person, 13.6 per 100 peopleSri Lanka: 743 kWh per person, 8.47 per 100 peopleLesotho: 248 kWh per person, 0.379 per 100 peopleLithuania: 4,353 kWh per person, 27.8 per 100 peopleLuxembourg: 9,846 kWh per person, 40.3 per 100 peopleLatvia: 4,057 kWh per person, 25.8 per 100 peopleMacao SAR, China: 8,719 kWh per person, 29.9 per 100 peopleMorocco: 1,255 kWh per person, 7.3 per 100 peopleMoldova: 2,059 kWh per person, 29.6 per 100 peopleMadagascar: 76 kWh per person, 0.124 per 100 peopleMaldives: 1,610 kWh per person, 19.6 per 100 peopleMexico: 2,703 kWh per person, 21.7 per 100 peopleNorth Macedonia: 4,604 kWh per person, 29.9 per 100 peopleMali: 223 kWh per person, 0.774 per 100 peopleMalta: 5,922 kWh per person, 44.5 per 100 peopleMyanmar: 402 kWh per person, 2.87 per 100 peopleMontenegro: 6,859 kWh per person, 32.3 per 100 peopleMongolia: 3,528 kWh per person, 15.8 per 100 peopleMozambique: 476 kWh per person, 0.142 per 100 peopleMauritania: 458 kWh per person, 0.947 per 100 peopleMauritius: 2,683 kWh per person, 28 per 100 peopleMalawi: 83.6 kWh per person, 0.0864 per 100 peopleMalaysia: 5,556 kWh per person, 13.5 per 100 peopleNamibia: 1,333 kWh per person, 2.83 per 100 peopleNiger: 79.5 kWh per person, 0.111 per 100 peopleNigeria: 165 kWh per person, 0.0787 per 100 peopleNicaragua: 784 kWh per person, 5.78 per 100 peopleNetherlands: 6,601 kWh per person, 43 per 100 peopleNorway: 24,490 kWh per person, 45.2 per 100 peopleNepal: 372 kWh per person, 10.1 per 100 peopleNaoero: 4,178 kWh per person, 9.96 per 100 peopleNew Zealand: 8,252 kWh per person, 38 per 100 peopleOman: 9,617 kWh per person, 11.1 per 100 peoplePakistan: 766 kWh per person, 1.47 per 100 peoplePanama: 2,943 kWh per person, 18.1 per 100 peoplePeru: 1,749 kWh per person, 11.7 per 100 peoplePhilippines: 1,054 kWh per person, 7.14 per 100 peoplePapua New Guinea: 447 kWh per person, 0.233 per 100 peoplePoland: 4,570 kWh per person, 25.4 per 100 peoplePuerto Rico (US): 6,265 kWh per person, 28 per 100 peoplePortugal: 5,805 kWh per person, 45.2 per 100 peopleParaguay: 4,228 kWh per person, 12.9 per 100 peopleWest Bank and Gaza: 1,454 kWh per person, 8.16 per 100 peopleQatar: 18,030 kWh per person, 11.8 per 100 peopleRomania: 2,876 kWh per person, 35.8 per 100 peopleRussian Federation: 8,168 kWh per person, 27.1 per 100 peopleRwanda: 85.6 kWh per person, 0.596 per 100 peopleSaudi Arabia: 13,385 kWh per person, 44.1 per 100 peopleSudan: 309 kWh per person, 0.0604 per 100 peopleSenegal: 439 kWh per person, 4.04 per 100 peopleSingapore: 10,295 kWh per person, 27.8 per 100 peopleSolomon Islands: 134 kWh per person, 0.107 per 100 peopleSierra Leone: 24.3 kWh per person, 0.00227 per 100 peopleEl Salvador: 985 kWh per person, 12.5 per 100 peopleSomalia, Fed. Rep.: 22.6 kWh per person, 0.723 per 100 peopleSerbia: 5,591 kWh per person, 33.4 per 100 peopleSao Tome and Principe: 390 kWh per person, 2.99 per 100 peopleSuriname: 2,743 kWh per person, 18.8 per 100 peopleSlovak Republic: 4,886 kWh per person, 33.8 per 100 peopleSlovenia: 6,759 kWh per person, 34.2 per 100 peopleSweden: 12,866 kWh per person, 40.6 per 100 peopleEswatini: 1,328 kWh per person, 2.51 per 100 peopleSeychelles: 4,830 kWh per person, 31.6 per 100 peopleSyrian Arab Republic: 984 kWh per person, 6.86 per 100 peopleChad: 18.2 kWh per person, 0 per 100 peopleTogo: 263 kWh per person, 1.42 per 100 peopleThailand: 3,143 kWh per person, 14.9 per 100 peopleTajikistan: 1,805 kWh per person, 0.984 per 100 peopleTurkmenistan: 3,204 kWh per person, 5.22 per 100 peopleTimor-Leste: 364 kWh per person, 0.006 per 100 peopleTonga: 672 kWh per person, 8.17 per 100 peopleTrinidad and Tobago: 6,334 kWh per person, 27 per 100 peopleTunisia: 2,016 kWh per person, 15 per 100 peopleTurkiye: 4,014 kWh per person, 23.4 per 100 peopleTanzania: 132 kWh per person, 0.246 per 100 peopleUganda: 107 kWh per person, 0.208 per 100 peopleUkraine: 2,719 kWh per person, 21.7 per 100 peopleUruguay: 4,358 kWh per person, 33 per 100 peopleUnited States: 13,061 kWh per person, 38.9 per 100 peopleUzbekistan: 2,419 kWh per person, 34.7 per 100 peopleSt. Vincent and the Grenadines: 1,491 kWh per person, 29.5 per 100 peopleVirgin Islands (U.S.): 7,934 kWh per person, 10.1 per 100 peopleViet Nam: 3,087 kWh per person, 23.7 per 100 peopleVanuatu: 250 kWh per person, 1.16 per 100 peopleSamoa: 734 kWh per person, 0.878 per 100 peopleSouth Africa: 3,658 kWh per person, 5.35 per 100 peopleZambia: 779 kWh per person, 0.79 per 100 peopleZimbabwe: 727 kWh per person, 1.94 per 100 peopleBHRCAFCANCYMGBRISLKNAKWTNORSLETCD

best-fit line line after adjusting

Four ways to measure the link

MethodrpCountries
Standard (Pearson), not adjusted+0.5483.4e-16189
By rank (Spearman), not adjusted+0.8442.2e-52189
Standard (Pearson), adjusted for national income+0.0410.581189
By rank (Spearman), adjusted for national income+0.1630.026189

The rank version uses only each country’s place in line, from lowest to highest, so a few extreme countries count for less. The adjusted and unadjusted versions use the same 189 countries: those that report both measures and GDP per person. So the gap between them comes from the adjustment, not from a change in which countries are counted. Drop in the size of r after adjusting: +0.507 (a minus sign means it grew).

How solid is it?

Leaving out one country at a time, r ranges from +0.016 (without GUY) to +0.089 (without KWT). The bar above shows that range on a scale from −1 to +1, with the solid line at the full result. The single country that moves r most: KWT (+0.048).

Fragile: this link may not hold up.
  • correlation moves sharply once outliers are trimmed
  • direction is not consistent across regions

Within each region

Countries are not separate, unrelated cases, and neighbors share a lot. A link that holds inside each region is far more believable than one that shows up only when comparing regions.

nr
East Asia & Pacific27+0.53
Europe & Central Asia50-0.00
Latin America & Caribbean35+0.26
Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan22-0.37
Sub-Saharan Africa46+0.69

By income third

If the link shows up only in the richest third of countries, it is a feature of rich countries, not a general pattern.

nr
Poorest third63+0.36
Middle third63+0.07
Richest third63-0.08

By largest religious group

Countries grouped by a label they share, such as main religion, rather than by a number. Groups of fewer than twelve countries are not shown. These groups differ in income, region and history all at once. So a gap between them is a place to start asking questions, not an answer.

nr
Christians110+0.21
Muslims49-0.13

By last european coloniser

Countries grouped by a label they share, such as main religion, rather than by a number. Groups of fewer than twelve countries are not shown. These groups differ in income, region and history all at once. So a gap between them is a place to start asking questions, not an answer.

nr
France25+0.78
Never a European colony21+0.36
Spain19+0.49
United Kingdom62-0.13

Without outliers (countries far outside the middle half of countries on either measure, by more than one and a half times the width of that middle half): r = +0.323 after dropping 9 countries.

Two series, one country

Both measures over the years for one country you pick. The two charts are stacked so they share only the years along the bottom.

Loading…

Over time, within countries

Everything above compares countries with each other at one moment. This section compares each country only with itself over 27years. So a link here can’t come from anything about a country that stays the same, such as its history, geography, institutions or culture.

Within countries over time, there is no link that is clearly more than chance (r = +0.052, comparing each country only with itself over the years, and each year only with the same year elsewhere). Whatever the cross-country picture shows, countries whose electricity use per person moved did not tend to see their fixed broadband move with it.

Across countries (adjusted)+0.041for comparison
Within countries+0.212each country vs itself
…and vs the same year elsewhere+0.052q = 0.391 · 197 countries
Year-on-year changes+0.040q = 0.201
Read with care.
  • Almost all of this indicator's variation is between countries, not within them, so the within-country estimate rests on a small part of the data.

4,142 country-years (one country in one year), 197 countries, 1998–2024, about 21 years each on average. Share of the variation that happens within countries over time: 4% for Electricity use per person, 35% for Fixed broadband. The margins of error allow for each country appearing many times, and for each year’s value being close to the year before.

Year-to-year changes are a cautious test, not a final answer. Looking only at changes from one year to the next removes each country’s own trends. But it also makes measurement mistakes louder, which pulls the results toward zero. A near-zero result here is weak evidence of no link, not proof.

With one measure years behind the other

0.20−0.2-100+10years Fixed broadband trails Electricity use per person →lag -10: r = -0.142 (n = 2,398)lag -9: r = -0.125 (n = 2,587)lag -8: r = -0.088 (n = 2,787)lag -7: r = -0.058 (n = 2,974)lag -6: r = -0.033 (n = 3,156)lag -5: r = -0.011 (n = 3,350)lag -4: r = 0.009 (n = 3,544)lag -3: r = 0.025 (n = 3,738)lag -2: r = 0.040 (n = 3,933)lag -1: r = 0.048 (n = 4,088)lag +0: r = 0.052 (n = 4,142)lag +1: r = 0.055 (n = 4,117)lag +2: r = 0.055 (n = 4,063)lag +3: r = 0.063 (n = 3,983)lag +4: r = 0.066 (n = 3,888)lag +5: r = 0.065 (n = 3,777)lag +6: r = 0.065 (n = 3,646)lag +7: r = 0.062 (n = 3,512)lag +8: r = 0.057 (n = 3,370)lag +9: r = 0.049 (n = 3,216)lag +10: r = 0.049 (n = 3,058)

Same year (lag 0): +0.052. A peak away from zero does not show which comes first. These series change slowly — this year’s value is close to last year’s. That makes the curve smooth and nearly symmetric, whatever produced the data. Even a sharp peak at one lag (a gap of some years) would not prove that one measure changes the other.

This curve peaks at the edge of the window (lag -10), so it is still drifting where the search stops. That pattern usually reflects a slow trend left over in the data, not a link with real timing. The peak value should not be read as the “true” link at the right lag.

The data


kWh per person
per 100 people		Years
Iceland ISL48,42437.52024
Norway NOR24,49045.22025, 2024
Bahrain BHR23,919172024
Kuwait KWT18,4021.012025, 2023
Qatar QAT18,03011.82025, 2024
Canada CAN16,09042.52025, 2024
United Arab Emirates ARE16,05340.82024
Bhutan BTN15,7422.922024
Finland FIN15,61036.52025, 2024
Saudi Arabia SAU13,38544.12024
United States USA13,06138.92025, 2024
Sweden SWE12,86640.62025, 2024
Korea, Rep. KOR12,09047.82025, 2024
Brunei Darussalam BRN12,01621.22024
Greenland GRL10,740322024, 2022

Ember, Yearly Electricity Data; population from Our World in Data, with processing by Our World in Data
World Bank, World Development Indicators

Sources

Electricity use per person

Electricity demand per person (kWh)

Ember · via Our World in Data · CC BY 4.0 · updated annual

All the electricity a country uses in a year, divided by its population, in kilowatt-hours (kWh). One kWh runs a 100-watt bulb for ten hours. It counts the power made at home plus imports, minus exports, including the power lost in wires along the way. So it is a little higher than "consumption" figures that leave those losses out. Use per person ranges from under 100 kWh a year in parts of Africa to over 50,000 in Iceland, where aluminium smelters use most of it, so a few industries can set a small country's figure. It rises steeply with income, and is measured in percentage terms (on a log scale) where it is used for adjusting. No "better" direction is set: more electricity can mean more comfort and industry, or more waste.

Fixed broadband

Fixed broadband subscriptions (per 100 people)

International Telecommunication Union · CC BY 4.0 · updated quarterly

Subscriptions, not people. A household line counts once, however many people use it. A country that went straight to mobile data can be well connected with few of these lines. Internet users, already on the site, is the measure of people.

How this was computed

Data used: most recent value in 2010-2025; values come from 2021–2025. To adjust for income, each measure is first predicted from GDP per person (in percentage terms, on a log scale) with a straight-line fit. Only what is left over is then compared. This is called a partial correlation. The line is drawn the standard way (ordinary least squares), which picks the line that comes closest to all the countries at once. The error margins allow for countries in the same region resembling each other, using 7 World Bank regions. The q-value corrects for testing all 13,797 pairs at once, using the Benjamini–Hochberg method. Underlying data last updated DYB 2024. How the country data works · explore Electricity use per person and Fixed broadband

This page shows that two measures go together. It does not show that Electricity use per person changes Fixed broadband, or the reverse. These figures also describe countries, not individual people. See the ecological fallacy.

More links with Electricity use per person or Fixed broadband