China consumes by far the most electricity of any country in the world, with more than 7.8 terawatt-hours consumed in 2021. The United States ranked as the second-leading electricity consumer that year, with nearly 4,000 terawatt hours consumed.
China is the largest consumer of primary energy in the world, using some 157.65 exajoules in 2021. This is far more than was consumed by the United States, which ranks second.
Among OECD nations, Iceland, Canada and South Korea are the most energy-intensive, while Estonia, Ireland and the U.K. are the least. Estonia, in fact, reduced its energy intensity the most of any OECD member state: a 59.8% decrease since 1993, largely due to structural changes in the country's manufacturing base.
Countries contribution to total fossil fuel production
Nowadays, fossil fuels are the world's dominant energy source, accounting for around 82% of the global energy supply. The USA is the biggest overall producer, producing just under 20% of all global fossil fuels, followed by Russia and Iran.
Nearly 15 billion metric tons of fossil fuels are consumed every year. Three countries use more fossil fuels than the rest of the world combined: China, the United States and India.
Fueling China's Rise
China's industrial sector accounts for two-thirds of the country's total energy consumption. In particular, manufacturing drives a large proportion of China's energy demand, with much of the energy coming from burning coal.
According to the water usage statistics by Our World in Data, China is the biggest consumer of water for domestic purposes like cleaning, cooking, drinking, and washing and uses over 70 billion m3 annually.
The U.S. is currently both the largest producer and the largest consumer of crude oil in the world, with highly populated countries like China and India following close behind. If you would like to learn more about oil consumption by country, please refer to the data in the map and charts.
Australia possesses the world's largest low-cost uranium resource, and it is the world's third largest uranium producer.
China is the world's largest consumer of electricity, using over 5.934 trillion kWh of energy annually. China accounts for almost one-quarter of global energy consumption.
China sources most of its electricity from coal. In 2022, the fossil fuel accounted for 63 percent of total electricity generation of the country.
China is the world's largest electricity producing country, followed by the United States and India.
Energy. A sudden loss of oil supplies would make it impossible to meet world energy needs. Countries have very varying stocks of natural gas which they could tap, and Johansen says such resources would be quickly depleted.
Global consumption of oil is currently estimated at roughly 96.5 million barrels per day. According to OPEC, global demand is expected to reach 109 million barrels per day. Estimations vary slightly, but it is predicted that - if demand forecasts hold - we will run out of oil from known reserves in about 47 years.
If we keep burning fossil fuels at our current rate, it is generally estimated that all our fossil fuels will be depleted by 2060.
The science is clear: to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, emissions need to be reduced by almost half by 2030 and reach net-zero by 2050. To achieve this, we need to end our reliance on fossil fuels and invest in alternative sources of energy that are clean, accessible, affordable, sustainable, and reliable.
China is the leading overall power consumer
Power-intensive industries, the purchasing power of the average citizen, household size, and general power efficiency standards all contribute to the amount of electricity that is consumed per person every year.
Australia is a net importer of oil and imports a large proportion of its refinery feedstocks. Most of Australia's oil is produced on the North West Shelf, some distance from domestic east coast refining capacity.
Oil consumption in Australia 2009-2022
As of 2022, approximately 1012 thousand barrels of oil were being consumed in Australia per day. In 2009, this value was around 950 thousand barrels per day.