placestats

Electricity use per person vs. Food insecurity

Fades after adjusting for income

Across 154 countries, Electricity use per person and Food insecurity rise and fall together at r = -0.51 (on a scale from −1 to +1, where 0 means no link). Comparing only countries with similar income (GDP per person) shrinks it to +0.01, which could easily be chance (q = 0.95, 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: sign flips when a single country is removed.

Comparing countries across the middle half of electricity use per person, 675 to 5,254 kWh per person, food insecurity is better by 10.4% of population at the top of that range than the bottom. Comparing only countries with similar national income, the gap reverses, to 0.131% of population the other way.

Link before adjusting (r)-0.511p = 1.3e-11 · 154 countries
After adjusting for national income+0.009p = 0.910 · likely range [-0.15, +0.17]
p, allowing for regions0.905standard error 0.074 · 7 regions
Check for luck (q)0.949across 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
Food insecurity · % of populationlink with income -0.83 · 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 →Food insecurity · % of population →18.248,4241.1%89.8%Afghanistan: 160 kWh per person, 80.8% of populationAngola: 411 kWh per person, 78.5% of populationAlbania: 3,106 kWh per person, 33% of populationUnited Arab Emirates: 16,053 kWh per person, 3.6% of populationArgentina: 3,543 kWh per person, 33.8% of populationArmenia: 2,757 kWh per person, 7.8% of populationAntigua and Barbuda: 3,945 kWh per person, 13.5% of populationAustralia: 10,615 kWh per person, 13.8% of populationAustria: 8,322 kWh per person, 4.7% of populationAzerbaijan: 2,613 kWh per person, 14% of populationBurundi: 40.6 kWh per person, 70.8% of populationBelgium: 7,361 kWh per person, 8.1% of populationBenin: 160 kWh per person, 65.6% of populationBurkina Faso: 135 kWh per person, 41.4% of populationBulgaria: 5,440 kWh per person, 11.6% of populationBahamas, The: 5,607 kWh per person, 17.2% of populationBosnia and Herzegovina: 4,599 kWh per person, 9.9% of populationBelarus: 5,054 kWh per person, 1.1% of populationBelize: 2,038 kWh per person, 45.5% of populationBrazil: 3,581 kWh per person, 13.5% of populationBarbados: 3,930 kWh per person, 31.1% of populationBotswana: 1,852 kWh per person, 53.9% of populationCentral African Republic: 27.2 kWh per person, 88.1% of populationCanada: 16,090 kWh per person, 10.2% of populationSwitzerland: 7,262 kWh per person, 2% of populationChile: 4,456 kWh per person, 19.2% of populationCote d'Ivoire: 315 kWh per person, 38.4% of populationCameroon: 251 kWh per person, 61.2% of populationCongo, Dem. Rep.: 159 kWh per person, 81.5% of populationColombia: 1,715 kWh per person, 27.8% of populationComoros: 165 kWh per person, 79.7% of populationCabo Verde: 991 kWh per person, 32.1% of populationCosta Rica: 2,416 kWh per person, 15.4% of populationCyprus: 4,311 kWh per person, 1.4% of populationCzechia: 6,413 kWh per person, 10% of populationGermany: 6,188 kWh per person, 4.1% of populationDjibouti: 685 kWh per person, 49.2% of populationDominica: 2,255 kWh per person, 34.4% of populationDenmark: 6,775 kWh per person, 6.9% of populationDominican Republic: 1,969 kWh per person, 43.8% of populationAlgeria: 2,005 kWh per person, 17.6% of populationEcuador: 2,003 kWh per person, 33.3% of populationEgypt, Arab Rep.: 2,064 kWh per person, 30.8% of populationSpain: 5,744 kWh per person, 6.5% of populationEstonia: 6,948 kWh per person, 10.8% of populationEthiopia: 229 kWh per person, 61.4% of populationFinland: 15,610 kWh per person, 13.4% of populationFiji: 1,238 kWh per person, 29.2% of populationFrance: 7,152 kWh per person, 8.4% of populationUnited Kingdom: 4,621 kWh per person, 6.9% of populationGeorgia: 3,862 kWh per person, 26.6% of populationGhana: 634 kWh per person, 44.5% of populationGambia, The: 185 kWh per person, 54.8% of populationGuinea-Bissau: 36.3 kWh per person, 62.5% of populationGreece: 5,590 kWh per person, 6.6% of populationGrenada: 2,047 kWh per person, 17.3% of populationGuatemala: 888 kWh per person, 48.8% of populationGuyana: 1,660 kWh per person, 25.5% of populationHonduras: 1,167 kWh per person, 41.3% of populationCroatia: 5,210 kWh per person, 6% of populationHaiti: 73.1 kWh per person, 83.2% of populationHungary: 5,077 kWh per person, 15.6% of populationIndonesia: 1,314 kWh per person, 4.5% of populationIreland: 7,091 kWh per person, 4.8% of populationIran, Islamic Rep.: 4,281 kWh per person, 38.8% of populationIceland: 48,424 kWh per person, 7.8% of populationIsrael: 7,954 kWh per person, 9.2% of populationItaly: 5,268 kWh per person, 1.7% of populationJamaica: 1,733 kWh per person, 56.4% of populationJapan: 8,366 kWh per person, 5.8% of populationKazakhstan: 6,050 kWh per person, 2% of populationKenya: 271 kWh per person, 73.9% of populationKyrgyz Republic: 2,647 kWh per person, 7% of populationCambodia: 1,254 kWh per person, 40% of populationKiribati: 297 kWh per person, 42.9% of populationSt. Kitts and Nevis: 4,908 kWh per person, 21.1% of populationKorea, Rep.: 12,090 kWh per person, 5.4% of populationKuwait: 18,402 kWh per person, 8.4% of populationLao PDR: 2,009 kWh per person, 35.6% of populationLebanon: 920 kWh per person, 42.4% of populationLiberia: 102 kWh per person, 80.8% of populationLibya: 4,686 kWh per person, 35.1% of populationSt. Lucia: 2,225 kWh per person, 22.2% of populationSri Lanka: 743 kWh per person, 11.2% of populationLesotho: 248 kWh per person, 59.9% of populationLithuania: 4,353 kWh per person, 6.5% of populationLuxembourg: 9,846 kWh per person, 2.6% of populationLatvia: 4,057 kWh per person, 11.2% of populationMoldova: 2,059 kWh per person, 25.1% of populationMadagascar: 76 kWh per person, 72.6% of populationMaldives: 1,610 kWh per person, 13.4% of populationMexico: 2,703 kWh per person, 19.3% of populationNorth Macedonia: 4,604 kWh per person, 15.2% of populationMali: 223 kWh per person, 20.6% of populationMalta: 5,922 kWh per person, 9.2% of populationMyanmar: 402 kWh per person, 32.7% of populationMontenegro: 6,859 kWh per person, 10.4% of populationMongolia: 3,528 kWh per person, 4.8% of populationMauritania: 458 kWh per person, 66.3% of populationMauritius: 2,683 kWh per person, 31.1% of populationMalawi: 83.6 kWh per person, 81.7% of populationMalaysia: 5,556 kWh per person, 16.7% of populationNamibia: 1,333 kWh per person, 55.9% of populationNiger: 79.5 kWh per person, 50.9% of populationNigeria: 165 kWh per person, 74.8% of populationNetherlands: 6,601 kWh per person, 7.5% of populationNorway: 24,490 kWh per person, 7.8% of populationNepal: 372 kWh per person, 36.6% of populationNaoero: 4,178 kWh per person, 29.9% of populationNew Zealand: 8,252 kWh per person, 17.3% of populationPakistan: 766 kWh per person, 42.1% of populationPeru: 1,749 kWh per person, 41% of populationPhilippines: 1,054 kWh per person, 32.9% of populationPapua New Guinea: 447 kWh per person, 57.3% of populationPoland: 4,570 kWh per person, 3.4% of populationPortugal: 5,805 kWh per person, 11.9% of populationParaguay: 4,228 kWh per person, 26.2% of populationWest Bank and Gaza: 1,454 kWh per person, 27% of populationRomania: 2,876 kWh per person, 18.6% of populationRussian Federation: 8,168 kWh per person, 2.8% of populationSenegal: 439 kWh per person, 29.1% of populationSingapore: 10,295 kWh per person, 9.5% of populationSierra Leone: 24.3 kWh per person, 89.8% of populationEl Salvador: 985 kWh per person, 45.5% of populationSomalia, Fed. Rep.: 22.6 kWh per person, 79.5% of populationSerbia: 5,591 kWh per person, 9.5% of populationSao Tome and Principe: 390 kWh per person, 54.6% of populationSuriname: 2,743 kWh per person, 35.8% of populationSlovak Republic: 4,886 kWh per person, 7.5% of populationSlovenia: 6,759 kWh per person, 8.2% of populationSweden: 12,866 kWh per person, 6.9% of populationEswatini: 1,328 kWh per person, 59% of populationSeychelles: 4,830 kWh per person, 14.3% of populationChad: 18.2 kWh per person, 66.3% of populationTogo: 263 kWh per person, 58.5% of populationThailand: 3,143 kWh per person, 5.4% of populationTajikistan: 1,805 kWh per person, 25.1% of populationTimor-Leste: 364 kWh per person, 53.7% of populationTonga: 672 kWh per person, 14.8% of populationTrinidad and Tobago: 6,334 kWh per person, 27.6% of populationTunisia: 2,016 kWh per person, 25.4% of populationTanzania: 132 kWh per person, 58% of populationUganda: 107 kWh per person, 54.6% of populationUkraine: 2,719 kWh per person, 32.5% of populationUruguay: 4,358 kWh per person, 16.2% of populationUnited States: 13,061 kWh per person, 10.3% of populationUzbekistan: 2,419 kWh per person, 24.4% of populationSt. Vincent and the Grenadines: 1,491 kWh per person, 33.3% of populationViet Nam: 3,087 kWh per person, 10.7% of populationVanuatu: 250 kWh per person, 23.3% of populationSamoa: 734 kWh per person, 18.6% of populationSouth Africa: 3,658 kWh per person, 20.7% of populationZambia: 779 kWh per person, 45.3% of populationZimbabwe: 727 kWh per person, 68.8% of populationCAFHTIIDNISLKWTLKANORSLETON

best-fit line line after adjusting

Four ways to measure the link

MethodrpCountries
Standard (Pearson), not adjusted-0.5111.3e-11154
By rank (Spearman), not adjusted-0.8345.2e-41154
Standard (Pearson), adjusted for national income+0.0090.910154
By rank (Spearman), adjusted for national income-0.2770.001154

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 154 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: +0.502 (a minus sign means it grew).

How solid is it?

Leaving out one country at a time, r ranges from -0.009 (without ISL) to +0.031 (without GUY). 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: GUY (+0.021).

Fragile: this link may not hold up.
  • sign flips when a single country is removed
  • sign flips 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 & Pacific22+0.29
Europe & Central Asia46+0.05
Latin America & Caribbean28-0.35
Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan14-0.02
Sub-Saharan Africa39-0.36

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 third52-0.43
Middle third51-0.23
Richest third51-0.04

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
Christians98+0.01
Muslims35-0.01

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
France21-0.33
Never a European colony16+0.32
Spain14-0.46
United Kingdom52-0.08

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 = -0.109 after dropping 8 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.

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Over time, within countries

Everything above compares countries with each other at one moment. This section compares each country only with itself over 9years. 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 = -0.057, 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 food insecurity move with it.

Across countries (adjusted)+0.009for comparison
Within countries-0.064each country vs itself
…and vs the same year elsewhere-0.057q = 0.630 · 126 countries
Year-on-year changes-0.067q = 0.376
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.

1,050 country-years (one country in one year), 126 countries, 2015–2023, about 8 years each on average. Share of the variation that happens within countries over time: 0% for Electricity use per person, 3% for Food insecurity. 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

0.20−0.2-60+10years Food insecurity trails Electricity use per person →lag -6: r = 0.164 (n = 335)lag -5: r = 0.059 (n = 542)lag -4: r = 0.072 (n = 667)lag -3: r = 0.077 (n = 838)lag -2: r = -0.000 (n = 986)lag -1: r = -0.036 (n = 1,049)lag +0: r = -0.057 (n = 1,050)lag +1: r = -0.066 (n = 1,051)lag +2: r = -0.035 (n = 1,051)lag +3: r = 0.006 (n = 1,051)lag +4: r = 0.012 (n = 1,051)lag +5: r = 0.033 (n = 1,051)lag +6: r = 0.013 (n = 1,050)lag +7: r = 0.034 (n = 1,049)lag +8: r = 0.009 (n = 1,044)lag +9: r = -0.006 (n = 1,044)lag +10: r = -0.016 (n = 1,044)

Same year (lag 0): -0.057. 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 -6), 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
% of population		Years
Iceland ISL48,4247.8%2024, 2023
Norway NOR24,4907.8%2025, 2023
Kuwait KWT18,4028.4%2025, 2023
Canada CAN16,09010.2%2025, 2023
United Arab Emirates ARE16,0533.6%2024, 2023
Finland FIN15,61013.4%2025, 2023
United States USA13,06110.3%2025, 2023
Sweden SWE12,8666.9%2025, 2023
Korea, Rep. KOR12,0905.4%2025, 2023
Australia AUS10,61513.8%2025, 2023
Singapore SGP10,2959.5%2025, 2023
Luxembourg LUX9,8462.6%2025, 2023
Japan JPN8,3665.8%2025, 2023
Austria AUT8,3224.7%2025, 2023
New Zealand NZL8,25217.3%2025, 2023

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.

Food insecurity

Prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity in the population (%)

Food and Agriculture Organization, Food Insecurity Experience Scale · CC BY 4.0 · updated quarterly

Asked of people, in a survey about running out of food, and reported as a three-year average from 2015. It is the one measure of hunger here that comes from what people say they went through, rather than from a model.

How this was computed

Data used: most recent value in 2010-2025; values come from 2017–2025. 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 Food insecurity

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

More links with Electricity use per person or Food insecurity