2026-04-28 · people

One in ten lack electricity

Off-grid villages still burn kerosene. SDG7 targets universal access.

Roughly 900 million people — 11% of the world's 8.2 billion — still live without electricity, and off-grid villages still burn kerosene after dark. The share has fallen from 2 in 10 in 2000, but progress is too slow for the SDG7 goal of universal access by 2030. Three-quarters of those left in the dark live in Sub-Saharan Africa.

1 cell = 8.2 million people (0.1% of world population) · 1,000 cells

Context

Global electricity access has risen steadily for decades. In 2015, the number of people without power fell below one billion for the first time in decades, and it has kept falling — an average of about 334,000 people gained access every day since 2000.

The geography of the gap has shifted. In 2000, nearly half of those without electricity lived in South Asia; today Sub-Saharan Africa is home to three-quarters of them, and rural households trail urban areas almost everywhere.

Electricity is only part of the picture. In 2020, about two-thirds of the world had clean cooking fuels, up from half in 2000, and access remains very low across Sub-Saharan Africa — while per capita electricity generation in many low-income countries runs more than 100 times below the wealthiest.

IEA / World Bank tracking SDG7: ~11% without access, rounded.