Coal consumption across 188 countries from 1990 to 2024, switchable between total consumption, consumption per person, and coal’s share of primary energy.
Coal consumption covers commercial solid fuels only: hard coal, lignite, and other solid fuels. It excludes coal converted to liquid or gaseous fuels but includes coal consumed in transformation processes such as electricity generation. Source: Energy Institute Statistical Review, via Our World in Data. Coverage is limited to the countries surveyed by the Energy Institute, so many smaller economies are absent rather than at zero.
Each metric answers a different question, and using only one produces a misleading picture.
Total consumption identifies where the emissions are. China alone accounts for over half of global coal use, and any assessment of the global trajectory has to start there.
Per person removes population from the comparison. It is the fairer basis for asking about responsibility, and it reorders the map substantially — several small economies consume more coal per head than China does.
Share of primary energy measures dependence rather than volume. A country consuming modest absolute quantities may still rely on coal for most of its energy, which makes transition harder even where the tonnage is small. This is the metric most relevant to the difficulty of decarbonisation.
Grey means not surveyed, not zero. The Energy Institute covers major economies. Many countries in Africa and Central Asia are absent from the dataset rather than at zero consumption.
Consumption includes transformation. Coal burned to generate electricity counts here, which is where most of it goes. Coal converted to liquid or gaseous fuels is excluded.
Trajectory matters as much as level. Hover any country to see its change since 1990. The divergence is stark: several European economies have cut coal use by more than 70%, while consumption in parts of Asia has multiplied several times over in the same period.
A falling share can accompany rising volume. A country’s coal share of primary energy can decline while absolute consumption grows, if total energy demand grows faster. Both readings are true and they mean different things.
Coal and the transition away from it run through much of my work on energy and decarbonisation:
Data from the Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy, via Our World in Data.