Statizoid

China vs USSR: Primary energy use

China
45,054 terawatt-hours
in 2025
USSR
17,692 terawatt-hours
in 1991
China rank
1st
USSR rank
2nd

Primary energy use over time

  • China
  • USSR
010.0k20.0k30.0k40.0k50.0k196519952025

How they compare

China currently reports 45,054 terawatt-hours against 17,692 terawatt-hours in USSR, a difference of 27,362 terawatt-hours.

That makes China's figure about 2.5 times USSR's.

Across all 27 years both countries report, USSR has been ahead every year.

China ranks 1st and USSR ranks 2nd of 218 countries.

Individual pages

About this data

Indicator
Primary energy use
Unit
terawatt-hours
Source
Energy Institute - Statistical Review of World Energy (2026); Smil (2017); U.S. Energy Information Administration (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Licence
CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage
221 places, 10,722 data points, 1965–2025
Last refreshed

Measured in terawatt-hours of total energy supply.