posts: 24841

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24841 Number of people in the world without electricity falls below one billion untitled-reusable-block-25 wp_block publish <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Global access to electricity has been steadily rising in recent decades. In 1990 <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-with-access-to-electricity?tab=chart&amp;country=OWID_WRL" target="_blank">just over 71%</a> of the world population had access; by 2016 this had risen to over 87%.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>This progress also holds true when we look at the <em>total number</em> of people without electricity access. In 2015, the total number without electricity <strong>fell below one billion</strong> for the first time in decades; very likely the first time in our history of electricity production.{ref}Although global electricity access data does not extend further back than the year 1990, I hypothesize that 2015 was the first year since the dawn of industrial electricity production that less than a billion have been without access. The global population was already over 1.4 billion by the time of <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth#shares-by-world-regions" target="_blank">the first power plant (in 1882)</a>. In fact, Asia (the world's most populous region) alone was approaching one billion at the end of the 19th century. The rapid development of the world's most populous regions has been focused within the most recent decades in the late 20th and early 21st century. Although the data is not available to confirm this, I would estimate that between 1882 and 1990 there has always been at least one billion people in the world without electricity access.{/ref}</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>This is shown in the chart: in 1990 more than 1.5 billion didn't have electricity; by 2015 this had fallen to 952 million. By 2016 it had fallen again to 940 million.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Progress has been fast. 1.26 billion got access to electricity for the first time in their lives between 2005 to 2016. Broken down to average daily change this means that on any average day in the last 11 years there were 314,770 people who got access to electricity for the first time in their lives.{ref}Number of people with access to electricity in 2005: 5,240,786,150<br>Number of people with access to electricity in 2016: 6,504,588,805<br>This is an average increase of 114,891,150 per year or 314,770 per day.{/ref}</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>This figure is still unacceptably high&nbsp;— and gains in access are moving much too slow to reach our <a href="https://sdg-tracker.org/energy#7.1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">goal of universal access by 2030</a>. This is particularly true for Sub-Saharan Africa&nbsp;— despite the&nbsp;<a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-with-access-to-electricity?tab=chart&amp;country=Sub-Saharan%20Africa" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>share</em> of the population with electricity</a> rising steadily, population growth meant that the total number of people without access was on the rise until 2016. Accelerated progress will be needed to ensure this number now continues to fall.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>You can explore these numbers for any country or region using the "Change country" function in the bottom-left of the interactive chart.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:html --> <iframe style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;" src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/number-of-people-with-and-without-electricity-access"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --> 
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                                "text": "fell below one billion",
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                        "text": " for the first time in decades; very likely the first time in our history of electricity production.{ref}Although global electricity access data does not extend further back than the year 1990, I hypothesize that 2015 was the first year since the dawn of industrial electricity production that less than a billion have been without access. The global population was already over 1.4 billion by the time of ",
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                        "text": ". In fact, Asia (the world's most populous region) alone was approaching one billion at the end of the 19th century. The rapid development of the world's most populous regions has been focused within the most recent decades in the late 20th and early 21st century. Although the data is not available to confirm this, I would estimate that between 1882 and 1990 there has always been at least one billion people in the world without electricity access.{/ref}",
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                        "text": "Progress has been fast. 1.26 billion got access to electricity for the first time in their lives between 2005 to 2016. Broken down to average daily change this means that on any average day in the last 11 years there were 314,770 people who got access to electricity for the first time in their lives.{ref}Number of people with access to electricity in 2005: 5,240,786,150",
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                        "text": "This figure is still unacceptably high\u00a0\u2014 and gains in access are moving much too slow to reach our ",
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                        "text": ". This is particularly true for Sub-Saharan Africa\u00a0\u2014 despite the\u00a0",
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                        "text": " rising steadily, population growth meant that the total number of people without access was on the rise until 2016. Accelerated progress will be needed to ensure this number now continues to fall.",
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 2019-09-20 14:54:03 2024-02-16 14:22:56   
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   2019-09-20 15:54:16 2022-02-13 10:57:06   
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 Global access to electricity has been steadily rising in recent decades. In 1990 [just over 71%](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-with-access-to-electricity?tab=chart&country=OWID_WRL) of the world population had access; by 2016 this had risen to over 87%. This progress also holds true when we look at the _total number_ of people without electricity access. In 2015, the total number without electricity **fell below one billion** for the first time in decades; very likely the first time in our history of electricity production.{ref}Although global electricity access data does not extend further back than the year 1990, I hypothesize that 2015 was the first year since the dawn of industrial electricity production that less than a billion have been without access. The global population was already over 1.4 billion by the time of [the first power plant (in 1882)](https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth#shares-by-world-regions). In fact, Asia (the world's most populous region) alone was approaching one billion at the end of the 19th century. The rapid development of the world's most populous regions has been focused within the most recent decades in the late 20th and early 21st century. Although the data is not available to confirm this, I would estimate that between 1882 and 1990 there has always been at least one billion people in the world without electricity access.{/ref} This is shown in the chart: in 1990 more than 1.5 billion didn't have electricity; by 2015 this had fallen to 952 million. By 2016 it had fallen again to 940 million. Progress has been fast. 1.26 billion got access to electricity for the first time in their lives between 2005 to 2016. Broken down to average daily change this means that on any average day in the last 11 years there were 314,770 people who got access to electricity for the first time in their lives.{ref}Number of people with access to electricity in 2005: 5,240,786,150 Number of people with access to electricity in 2016: 6,504,588,805 This is an average increase of 114,891,150 per year or 314,770 per day.{/ref} This figure is still unacceptably high — and gains in access are moving much too slow to reach our [goal of universal access by 2030](https://sdg-tracker.org/energy#7.1). This is particularly true for Sub-Saharan Africa — despite the [_share_ of the population with electricity](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-with-access-to-electricity?tab=chart&country=Sub-Saharan%20Africa) rising steadily, population growth meant that the total number of people without access was on the rise until 2016. Accelerated progress will be needed to ensure this number now continues to fall. You can explore these numbers for any country or region using the "Change country" function in the bottom-left of the interactive chart.  <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/number-of-people-with-and-without-electricity-access"/> 
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            "content": "\n<p>Global access to electricity has been steadily rising in recent decades. In 1990 <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-with-access-to-electricity?tab=chart&amp;country=OWID_WRL\" target=\"_blank\">just over 71%</a> of the world population had access; by 2016 this had risen to over 87%.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This progress also holds true when we look at the <em>total number</em> of people without electricity access. In 2015, the total number without electricity\u00a0<strong>fell below one billion</strong> for the first time in decades; very likely the first time in our history of electricity production.{ref}Although global electricity access data does not extend further back than the year 1990, I hypothesize that 2015 was the first year since the dawn of industrial electricity production that less than a billion have been without access. The global population was already over 1.4 billion by the time of <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth#shares-by-world-regions\" target=\"_blank\">the first power plant (in 1882)</a>. In fact, Asia (the world&#8217;s most populous region) alone was approaching one billion at the end of the 19th century. The rapid development of the world&#8217;s most populous regions has been focused within the most recent decades in the late 20th and early 21st century. Although the data is not available to confirm this, I would estimate that between 1882 and 1990 there has always been at least one billion people in the world without electricity access.{/ref}</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is shown in the chart: in 1990 more than 1.5 billion didn&#8217;t have electricity; by 2015 this had fallen to 952 million.\u00a0By 2016 it had fallen again to 940 million.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Progress has been fast. 1.26 billion got access to electricity for the first time in their lives between 2005 to 2016. Broken down to average daily change this means that on any average day in the last 11 years there were 314,770 people who got access to electricity for the first time in their lives.{ref}Number of people with access to electricity in 2005: 5,240,786,150<br>Number of people with access to electricity in 2016: 6,504,588,805<br>This is an average increase of 114,891,150 per year or 314,770 per day.{/ref}</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This figure is still unacceptably high&nbsp;\u2014 and gains in access are moving much too slow to reach our <a href=\"https://sdg-tracker.org/energy#7.1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">goal of universal access by 2030</a>. This is particularly true for Sub-Saharan Africa&nbsp;\u2014 despite the&nbsp;<a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-with-access-to-electricity?tab=chart&amp;country=Sub-Saharan%20Africa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>share</em> of the population with electricity</a> rising steadily, population growth meant that the total number of people without access was on the rise until 2016. Accelerated progress will be needed to ensure this number now continues to fall.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can explore these numbers for any country or region using the &#8220;Change country&#8221; function in the bottom-left of the interactive chart.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;\" src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/number-of-people-with-and-without-electricity-access\"></iframe>\n"
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