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Fossil fuels

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About this data

Coal production
Measured in .
Source
Energy Institute - Statistical Review of World Energy (2026); Etemad & Luciani (1991); U.S. Energy Information Administration (2026); Smil (2017); National Infrastructure Commission (2020) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
June 30, 2026
Next expected update
June 2027
Date range
1700–2025
Unit
terawatt-hours

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

Energy Institute – Statistical Review of World Energy

The Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy analyses data on world energy markets from the prior year.

Retrieved on
July 2, 2026
Retrieved from
https://www.energyinst.org/statistical-review/
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.
Energy Institute - Statistical Review of World Energy (2026).

The Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy analyses data on world energy markets from the prior year.

Retrieved on
July 2, 2026
Retrieved from
https://www.energyinst.org/statistical-review/
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.
Energy Institute - Statistical Review of World Energy (2026).

Etemad & Luciani – World Energy Production 1800-1985

Historical estimates of world energy production, broken down by fuel (coal, oil, gas, nuclear, hydroelectricity, geothermal energy and peat) and reported in million tonnes of oil equivalent.

The book covers 1800 to 1985. This snapshot is the machine-readable version released by The Shift Project through The Shift Data Portal, with the agreement of B. Etemad, which covers 1900 to 1979 for 127 countries, alongside regional and other aggregates.

Retrieved on
July 7, 2026
Retrieved from
https://www.droz.org/product/9782600560078
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.
Etemad, B. and Luciani, J. (1991). World Energy Production 1800-1985 / Production mondiale d'énergie, 1800-1985. Edited by P. Bairoch and J.-C. Toutain. Publications d'histoire économique et sociale internationale 7. Geneva: Librairie Droz. ISBN 9782600560078.
Machine-readable version published by The Shift Project (The Shift Data Portal), with the agreement of B. Etemad.

Historical estimates of world energy production, broken down by fuel (coal, oil, gas, nuclear, hydroelectricity, geothermal energy and peat) and reported in million tonnes of oil equivalent.

The book covers 1800 to 1985. This snapshot is the machine-readable version released by The Shift Project through The Shift Data Portal, with the agreement of B. Etemad, which covers 1900 to 1979 for 127 countries, alongside regional and other aggregates.

Retrieved on
July 7, 2026
Retrieved from
https://www.droz.org/product/9782600560078
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.
Etemad, B. and Luciani, J. (1991). World Energy Production 1800-1985 / Production mondiale d'énergie, 1800-1985. Edited by P. Bairoch and J.-C. Toutain. Publications d'histoire économique et sociale internationale 7. Geneva: Librairie Droz. ISBN 9782600560078.
Machine-readable version published by The Shift Project (The Shift Data Portal), with the agreement of B. Etemad.

U.S. Energy Information Administration – International Energy Data

Retrieved on
May 5, 2026
Retrieved from
https://www.eia.gov/opendata/bulkfiles.php
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.
U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) - International Energy Data (2026).
Retrieved on
May 5, 2026
Retrieved from
https://www.eia.gov/opendata/bulkfiles.php
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.
U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) - International Energy Data (2026).

Smil – Energy Transitions: Global and National Perspectives

Retrieved on
December 12, 2023
Retrieved from
https://vaclavsmil.com/book/energy-transitions-global-and-national-perspectives-second-expanded-and-updated-edition/
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.
Energy Transitions: Global and National Perspectives, 2nd edition, Appendix A, Vaclav Smil (2017).
Retrieved on
December 12, 2023
Retrieved from
https://vaclavsmil.com/book/energy-transitions-global-and-national-perspectives-second-expanded-and-updated-edition/
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.
Energy Transitions: Global and National Perspectives, 2nd edition, Appendix A, Vaclav Smil (2017).

National Infrastructure Commission – UK historical energy data

A historical energy data set for the United Kingdom, compiled by Roger Fouquet (Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science) for the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC). It brings together long-run time series on the UK's energy consumption, energy prices and carbon dioxide emissions, spanning as far back as 1700.

The long-run coal series combines historical estimates from M.W. Flinn's and R. Church's volumes of "The History of the British Coal Industry" (covering 1700-1830 and 1830-1913 respectively) with the official "Historical coal data" published by the UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), which covers 1853 to 2018.

Retrieved on
July 2, 2026
Retrieved from
https://web.archive.org/web/20250323165206/https://nic.org.uk/data/all-data/historic-energy/
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.
Fouquet, R. (2020). A historical energy data set for the UK. National Infrastructure Commission. Version 1, finalized on 31 March 2020, based on the Digest of United Kingdom Energy Statistics 2019 with historical extension. Prepared by Roger Fouquet (Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science).

A historical energy data set for the United Kingdom, compiled by Roger Fouquet (Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science) for the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC). It brings together long-run time series on the UK's energy consumption, energy prices and carbon dioxide emissions, spanning as far back as 1700.

The long-run coal series combines historical estimates from M.W. Flinn's and R. Church's volumes of "The History of the British Coal Industry" (covering 1700-1830 and 1830-1913 respectively) with the official "Historical coal data" published by the UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), which covers 1853 to 2018.

Retrieved on
July 2, 2026
Retrieved from
https://web.archive.org/web/20250323165206/https://nic.org.uk/data/all-data/historic-energy/
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.
Fouquet, R. (2020). A historical energy data set for the UK. National Infrastructure Commission. Version 1, finalized on 31 March 2020, based on the Digest of United Kingdom Energy Statistics 2019 with historical extension. Prepared by Roger Fouquet (Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science).

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
Notes on our processing step for this indicator
  • Fossil fuel production is taken from the Energy Institute's Statistical Review of World Energy (from 1965), extended before then with Etemad & Luciani's historical estimates (1900-1979) and, for coal, with Vaclav Smil (2017) for the World and the NIC / Fouquet historical dataset for the United Kingdom (before 1900). It is extended to countries not covered by the Statistical Review, and to recent years, with the U.S. Energy Information Administration's data.
  • Fossil fuel consumption in energy units comes from the Energy Institute's Statistical Review of World Energy, extended to countries it does not cover, and to recent years, with the U.S. Energy Information Administration's data. Global consumption before 1965 is given by global production.
  • Fossil fuel production, proved reserves, trade (imports, exports, and net imports), and consumption — all in physical units — come from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Reuse this work

  • 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.
  • All data, visualizations, and code produced by Our World in Data are completely open access under the Creative Commons BY license. You have the permission to use, distribute, and reproduce these in any medium, provided the source and authors are credited.

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: Coal production”, part of the following publication: Hannah Ritchie, Pablo Rosado, and Max Roser (2023) - “Energy”. Data adapted from Energy Institute, Etemad & Luciani, U.S. Energy Information Administration, Smil, National Infrastructure Commission. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260807-080945/grapher/fossil-fuels.html [online resource] (archived on August 7, 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:

Energy Institute - Statistical Review of World Energy (2026) and other sources – with major processing by Our World in Data

Full citation

Energy Institute - Statistical Review of World Energy (2026); Etemad & Luciani (1991); U.S. Energy Information Administration (2026); Smil (2017); National Infrastructure Commission (2020) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “Coal production” [dataset]. Energy Institute, “Statistical Review of World Energy”; Etemad & Luciani, “World Energy Production 1800-1985”; U.S. Energy Information Administration, “International Energy Data”; Smil, “Energy Transitions: Global and National Perspectives”; National Infrastructure Commission, “UK historical energy data” [original data]. Retrieved August 7, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260807-080945/grapher/fossil-fuels.html (archived on August 7, 2026).

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