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Sulfur dioxide emissions from all sectors

Description

Sulfur dioxide (SO₂) is an air pollutant formed from the burning of fuels that contain sulfur, such as coal. SO₂ is one of the main chemicals that forms acid rain.

Data source
Hoesly et al. (2024) – Community Emissions Data System (CEDS) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Unit
tonnes
Date range
1750-2022
Last updated
2025-02-12
Next expected update
2026-12-02
Managed by
Pablo Rosado
  • "Agriculture" includes air pollutant emissions from biological processes such as manure management, rice cultivation, soil processes, and livestock digestive processes. It also covers indirect N₂O emissions from non-agricultural nitrogen sources and fuel combustion in agricultural machinery, forestry, and fishing.
  • "Buildings" includes air pollutant emissions from fuel combustion in residential, commercial, and institutional buildings. Key sources include heating, cooking, and other energy use in homes, offices, and public facilities.
  • "Domestic aviation" includes air pollutant emissions from fuel combustion in aircraft operating on domestic routes.
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  • "Energy" includes air pollutant emissions from fuel combustion in electricity and heat production, as well as fugitive emissions from solid fuels, petroleum, and natural gas extraction. This sector also includes emissions from fossil fuel fires.
  • "Industry" includes air pollutant emissions from fuel combustion and chemical processes in manufacturing sectors, such as iron and steel production, cement and lime manufacturing, mining, and non-metallic mineral processing.
  • "International aviation" includes air pollutant emissions from fuel combustion in aircraft operating on international routes.
  • "International shipping" includes air pollutant emissions from fuel combustion in ships engaged in international transport. It also covers emissions from oil tanker loading, the transfer of crude oil or petroleum products between storage facilities and transport systems such as tankers.
  • "Transport" includes air pollutant emissions from fuel combustion in road, rail, and domestic navigation.
  • "Solvents" includes air pollutant emissions from industrial and consumer applications such as degreasing, painting, and chemical manufacturing.
  • "Waste" includes air pollutant emissions from solid waste disposal, waste combustion, wastewater handling, and other waste management processes.
  • Emissions assigned to "Other" are those that are included in the global total, but cannot be allocated to any specific countries.

Frequently asked questions

How did Our World in Data process this 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.

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Notes on our processing step for this indicator

Subsectors have been mapped into broader sectors as follows (using CEDS codes):

  • Agriculture: enteric fermentation (3E); fuel use in agriculture, forestry, and fishing (1A4c); indirect N₂O emissions (non-agricultural sources) (7BC); manure management (3B); other agricultural emissions (3I); rice cultivation (3D); soil emissions (3D).
  • Buildings: commercial and institutional buildings (1A4a); residential buildings (1A4b).
  • Domestic aviation: domestic aviation (1A3aii).
  • Energy: electricity production (autoproducer) (1A1a); electricity production (public) (1A1a); fossil fuel fires (7A); fugitive emissions from natural gas distribution (1B2b); fugitive emissions from natural gas production (1B2b); fugitive emissions from other energy sources (1B2d); fugitive emissions from petroleum (1B2); fugitive emissions from solid fuels (1B1); heat production (1A1a); other energy transformation (1A1bc); other fuel use (unspecified) (1A5).
  • Industry: adipic acid production (2B3); aluminum production (2C3); cement production (2A1); chemical industry (2B); industrial combustion (chemicals) (1A2c); industrial combustion (construction) (1A2g); industrial combustion (food and tobacco) (1A2e); industrial combustion (iron and steel) (1A2a); industrial combustion (machinery) (1A2g); industrial combustion (mining and quarrying) (1A2g); industrial combustion (non-ferrous metals) (1A2b); industrial combustion (non-metallic minerals) (1A2f); industrial combustion (other) (1A2g); industrial combustion (pulp and paper) (1A2d); industrial combustion (textile and leather) (1A2g); industrial combustion (transport equipment) (1A2g); industrial combustion (wood products) (1A2g); iron and steel alloy production (2C1); lime production (2A2); nitric acid production (2B2); other mineral production (2Ax); other non-ferrous metal production (2C4); pulp and paper, food, beverage, and wood processing (2H).
  • International aviation: international aviation (1A3ai).
  • International shipping: international shipping (1A3di); oil tanker loading (1A3di).
  • Solvents: chemical products manufacture and processing (2D); degreasing and cleaning (2D); other product use (2D); paint application (2D).
  • Transport: domestic navigation (1A3dii); other transport (1A3eii); rail transportation (1A3c); road transportation (1A3b).
  • Waste: other waste handling (5E); other waste sources (6A); solid waste disposal (5A); unspecified waste sources (6B); waste combustion (5C); wastewater handling (5D).

Data sources

Hoesly et al. – Community Emissions Data System

The Community Emissions Data System (CEDS) produces consistent estimates of global air emissions species (BC, CO, CO2, NH3, NMVOC, NOx, OC, SO2) over the industrial era (1750 - present) along with CH4 and N2O over recent decades.

Retrieved on
February 12, 2025
Retrieved from
https://zenodo.org/records/12803197
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. 
Hoesly, R., Smith, S. J., Prime, N., Ahsan, H., Suchyta, H., O'Rourke, P., Crippa, M., Klimont, Z., Guizzardi, D., Behrendt, J., Feng, L., Harkins, C., McDonald, B., Mott, A., McDuffie, A., Nicholson, M., & Wang, S. (2024). CEDS v_2024_07_08 Release Emission Data (v_2024_07_08) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12803197

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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: Sulfur dioxide emissions from all sectors”, part of the following publication: Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser (2021) - “Air Pollution”. Data adapted from Hoesly et al.. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20261102-112946/grapher/so-emissions-by-world-region-in-million-tonnes.html [online resource] (archived on November 2, 2026).

How to cite this data

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

Hoesly et al. (2024) – Community Emissions Data System (CEDS) – with major processing by Our World in Data

Full citation

Hoesly et al. (2024) – Community Emissions Data System (CEDS) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “Sulfur dioxide emissions from all sectors” [dataset]. Hoesly et al., “Community Emissions Data System v_2024_07_08” [original data]. Retrieved November 2, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20261102-112946/grapher/so-emissions-by-world-region-in-million-tonnes.html (archived on November 2, 2026).

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