2023-09-03 · 2023 fossil CO₂ per person (OWID, scaled)
Who emits most CO₂ per person
National totals hide how much each person emits. In 2023 fossil CO₂ per capita was about 14 t in the United States, ~8 t in China, ~6 t in the EU, and under 2 t in India — while petro-states like Qatar are far higher (OWID).
National totals make China look like the climate problem — but per person the story flips. In 2023 the average American emitted about 14 tonnes of fossil CO₂, roughly seven times the average Indian's footprint of under 2 tonnes. China (~8 t) and the EU (~6 t) sit in between. The grid scales those per-capita rates, not shares of global emissions.
1 cell = 1 index cells (0.1% of scaled per-capita comparison) · 1,000 cells
Context
Per-capita rankings have their own extremes: the largest footprints belong to oil producers such as Qatar, the UAE, Bahrain, and Kuwait, though small populations keep their total emissions modest. Among big economies, the US, Australia, and Canada run around three times the global average per person.
These are production-based figures — emissions released within each border, the basis for climate targets. Energy mix explains much of the spread: France and the UK emit far less per person than neighbors like Germany, thanks to more nuclear and renewable electricity.
The gap at the bottom is stark: in Chad, Niger, and other poor Sub-Saharan countries the average footprint is around 0.1 tonnes a year, and the average American emits that much in under two days.
Our World in Data — CO₂ emissions per capita (fossil), 2023: United States ~13.8 t, China ~8.2 t, European Union (27) ~6.0 t, India ~1.9 t. Cell counts scale these four rates to 1,000 cells (not national shares of global emissions).
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Credit this grid as Inagrid — https://inagrid.com/e/2023-09-03-co2-emissions-per-capita
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