Global access to electricity has increased over past two decades

According to the most recent data from the World Bank, 10 percent more of the world’s population has access to electricity today than two decades ago.

In 1994, 25 percent of the global population did not have access to electricity. In 2014, the year of the
most recent World Bank data, 15 percent, approximately 1.1 billion people, lacked access to electricity.

Part of the increase in electrification is due to the faster rate of the faster rate of population growth in
urban areas, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). In 1994, 44 percent of the world’s population lived in urban areas. While that share rose to 53 percent by 2014, 27 percent of those still living in rural areas lacked electricity access compared to the four percent of the world’s urban population.

Populations gained access to electricity at the quickest rates from 1994 to 2014 in Africa, the Middle East, and South and Southeast Asia. Investments in increasing electricity access have significant impacts for economic development, quality of life, energy consumption and energy-related emissions for each country.

The 2017 EIA Energy Conference, which will be held June 26 and 27, 2017 in Washington, D.C., will include a panel on electrification in developing countries. The session will examine obstacles to and drivers of electrification.