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Data

Renewable electricity-generating capacity per person

What you should know about this indicator

How is this data described by its producer?

Installed renewable electricity-generating capacity (watts per capita)

Further information available at: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/files/Metadata-07-0b-01.pdf

Renewable electricity-generating capacity per person
Installed renewable electricity-generating capacity (watts per capita)
Source
International Renewable Energy Agency and United Nations World Population Prospects – processed by Our World in Data
Last updated
October 29, 2025
Next expected update
October 2027
Date range
2000–2023
Unit
watts per capita

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

International Renewable Energy Agency and United Nations World Population Prospects – Renewable electricity generating capacity from IRENA's electricity capacity database. Population data from the United Nations World Population Prospects.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) dataset is the primary collection of data tracking progress towards the SDG indicators, compiled from officially-recognized international sources.

Retrieved on
October 29, 2025
Retrieved from
https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/dataportal
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
International Renewable Energy Agency and United Nations World Population Prospects via UN SDG Indicators Database (https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/dataportal), UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (accessed 2025). More information available at: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/files/Metadata-07-0b-01.pdf.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) dataset is the primary collection of data tracking progress towards the SDG indicators, compiled from officially-recognized international sources.

Retrieved on
October 29, 2025
Retrieved from
https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/dataportal
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
International Renewable Energy Agency and United Nations World Population Prospects via UN SDG Indicators Database (https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/dataportal), UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (accessed 2025). More information available at: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/files/Metadata-07-0b-01.pdf.

How we process data at Our World in Data

All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.

Read about our data pipeline

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  • All data produced by third-party providers and made available by Our World in Data are subject to the license terms from the original providers. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always cite them appropriately (see below). This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining and updating valuable data.
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Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Renewable electricity-generating capacity per person”. Our World in Data (2026). Data adapted from International Renewable Energy Agency and United Nations World Population Prospects. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260518-095641/grapher/renewable-electricity-generating-capacity-per-capita.html [online resource] (archived on May 18, 2026).

How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

International Renewable Energy Agency and United Nations World Population Prospects – processed by Our World in Data

Full citation

International Renewable Energy Agency and United Nations World Population Prospects – processed by Our World in Data. “Renewable electricity-generating capacity per person” [dataset]. International Renewable Energy Agency and United Nations World Population Prospects, “Renewable electricity generating capacity from IRENA's electricity capacity database. Population data from the United Nations World Population Prospects.” [original data]. Retrieved May 18, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260518-095641/grapher/renewable-electricity-generating-capacity-per-capita.html (archived on May 18, 2026).

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