Countries with the lowest access rate to electricity 2022
South Sudan ranked as the least-electrified country in the world in 2022, with only 8.4 percent of its population having access to electricity. Burundi fared only slightly better, with an access rate of around 10 percent.
Electricity access in Africa
As of 2022, the top 20 least-electrified countries in the world were all located in Africa, except for Papua New Guinea. In fact, while the number of people without electricity worldwide more than halved in the past two decades, the figure for Sub-Saharan Africa has remained fairly stable in the period, accounting for roughly eight out of every 10 people without electricity in 2023. The region also shows great disparities in access between urban and rural areas. In 2022, over 80 percent of the urban population in Sub-Saharan Africa had access to electricity, while the same was true for only 31 percent of rural dwellers.
Global power trends
Despite disparities, electricity consumption worldwide has seen continuous growth in the past century, more than tripling since 1980. As more people gain access to this service, and different sectors (such as heating and transportation) see a growth in electrification, global power generation is forecast to double again by the middle of the century.
