China vs USSR: Primary energy use by source

China
25,622 terawatt-hours
in 2025
USSR
3,933 terawatt-hours
in 1984
China rank
1st
USSR rank
2nd

Primary energy use by source over time

  • China
  • USSR
05.0k10.0k15.0k20.0k25.0k196519952025

How they compare

China currently reports 25,622 terawatt-hours against 3,933 terawatt-hours in USSR, a difference of 21,689 terawatt-hours.

That makes China's figure about 6.5 times USSR's.

The two have swapped places 1 time across 20 shared years of data; in 1965 it was USSR ahead.

China ranks 1st and USSR ranks 2nd of 78 countries.

Individual pages

About this data

Indicator
Primary energy use by source
Unit
terawatt-hours
Source
Energy Institute - Statistical Review of World Energy (2026); Smil (2017) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Licence
CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage
81 places, 4,378 data points, 1965–2025
Last refreshed

Measured in terawatt-hours of total energy supply.