Changes in energy use vs. changes in GDP by country

Consumption-based (trade-adjusted) primary energy use measures domestic energy use minus energy used to produce exported goods, plus energy used to produce imported goods. Gross domestic product (GDP) is adjusted for inflation and differences in living costs between countries.

Countries reporting
43
Highest
40,469 terawatt-hours
China
Lowest
30.77 terawatt-hours
Malta
Median
642.34 terawatt-hours
Years covered
26
1995–2020
Data points
1,113

What the numbers show

Changes in energy use vs. changes in GDP is currently reported for 43 countries. The highest value is 40,469 terawatt-hours in China; the lowest is 30.77 terawatt-hours in Malta.

The median across all reporting countries is 642.34 terawatt-hours, and the mean is 3,389 terawatt-hours.

The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 1,315.

Over the past decade 32 countries rose and 11 fell. The largest increase was in Ireland (up 85.3%), and the largest decrease in Cyprus (down 26.3%).

Changes in energy use vs. changes in GDP: full country ranking

#Country LatestYear 10-year changeTrend
1 China 40,469 terawatt-hours 2020 up 57.0% rising
2 United States 32,208 terawatt-hours 2020 up 14.5% rising
3 India 14,535 terawatt-hours 2020 up 80.5% rising
4 Japan 6,738 terawatt-hours 2019 up 14.6% falling
5 Russia 6,551 terawatt-hours 2020 up 14.0% rising
6 Germany 4,948 terawatt-hours 2020 up 4.4% falling
7 France 3,503 terawatt-hours 2020 down 1.2% rising
8 Indonesia 3,134 terawatt-hours 2020 up 34.6% rising
9 United Kingdom 3,110 terawatt-hours 2020 up 5.2% falling
10 Canada 3,098 terawatt-hours 2020 up 6.3% rising
11 South Korea 3,065 terawatt-hours 2020 up 16.8% rising
12 Brazil 2,923 terawatt-hours 2020 down 5.9% rising
13 Mexico 2,829 terawatt-hours 2020 up 38.3% rising
14 Italy 2,383 terawatt-hours 2020 down 9.0% falling
15 Turkey 1,732 terawatt-hours 2020 up 13.3% rising
16 Spain 1,581 terawatt-hours 2020 down 10.6% flat
17 Australia 1,403 terawatt-hours 2020 down 16.3% rising
18 South Africa 1,293 terawatt-hours 2020 up 4.3% rising
19 Netherlands 1,279 terawatt-hours 2020 up 1.4% rising
20 Poland 1,245 terawatt-hours 2020 up 5.2% rising
21 Belgium 809.29 terawatt-hours 2020 up 31.1% rising
22 Greece 642.34 terawatt-hours 2020 down 5.5% falling
23 Sweden 578.92 terawatt-hours 2020 up 2.0% flat
24 Czechia 565.47 terawatt-hours 2020 up 16.0% rising
25 Austria 499.96 terawatt-hours 2020 up 10.0% rising
26 Romania 499.59 terawatt-hours 2020 up 13.5% rising
27 Ireland 487.65 terawatt-hours 2020 up 85.3% rising
28 Hungary 476.54 terawatt-hours 2020 up 24.3% rising
29 Switzerland 461.75 terawatt-hours 2020 down 10.4% falling
30 Finland 440.63 terawatt-hours 2020 up 2.8% rising
31 Norway 423.85 terawatt-hours 2020 down 4.2% rising
32 Denmark 342.52 terawatt-hours 2020 down 0.1% falling
33 Portugal 310.1 terawatt-hours 2020 down 4.9% falling
34 Slovakia 260.48 terawatt-hours 2020 up 1.3% rising
35 Bulgaria 196.52 terawatt-hours 2020 up 11.9% flat
36 Lithuania 137.63 terawatt-hours 2020 up 33.4% falling
37 Croatia 132.35 terawatt-hours 2020 up 9.6% flat
38 Slovenia 103.72 terawatt-hours 2020 up 4.8% falling
39 Luxembourg 81.87 terawatt-hours 2020 up 54.5% rising
40 Latvia 80.58 terawatt-hours 2020 up 22.4% volatile
41 Estonia 79.53 terawatt-hours 2020 up 33.4% rising
42 Cyprus 49.49 terawatt-hours 2020 down 26.3% rising
43 Malta 30.77 terawatt-hours 2020 up 9.2% rising

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Changes in energy use vs. changes in GDP by country. Statizoid, drawing on Kulionis (2021) – processed by Our World in Data. Retrieved 22 September 2026, from https://energy.statizoid.com/stat/energy-use-gdp-decoupling/

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About this data

Indicator
Changes in energy use vs. changes in GDP
Unit
terawatt-hours
Source
Kulionis (2021) – processed by Our World in Data
Licence
CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage
43 places, 1,113 data points, 1995–2020
Last refreshed

Consumption-based (trade-adjusted) primary energy use measures domestic energy use minus energy used to produce exported goods, plus energy used to produce imported goods. Gross domestic product (GDP) is adjusted for inflation and differences in living costs between countries.