OECD members: Electricity production from coal sources (% of total)

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2025, OECD members' electricity production from coal sources (% of total) rose 0.24 percentage points on 2024 (from 15.95% to 16.19%).

Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1995 to 2024), the average change was −0.75 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 1.09 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.9 standard deviations above that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 1.18 percentage points in 2021 and the biggest yearly fall was 3.08 percentage points in 2020. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2016 to 2025 the straight-line trend is downward, about 1.38 percentage points a year. A straight line explains 93% of the movement over 10 observed years.

Worked out from the yearly values above. How the checks work: standard deviation, z-scores and straight-line trends.

A straight-line projection, tested first

Extending that straight line gives about 10.27% for 2028. We show this only because the same method, fitted on earlier years, predicted 2023 to 2025 better than "no change" would have: its average miss was 0.68%, against 3.38% for assuming no change. Treat it as a continuation of the recent pattern, not a forecast of events: it cannot see a recession, a policy change or a revision to the data.

See how a linear trend forecast works and the guide on forecasting without fooling yourself.

How it compares

See how every economy compares in the full ranking.

What this measures

The share of electricity production from coal sources of total electricity production. Sources of electricity refer to the inputs used to generate electricity. Coal refers to all coal and brown coal, both primary (including hard coal and lignite-brown coal) and derived fuels (including patent fuel, coke oven coke, gas coke, coke oven gas, and blast furnace gas). Peat is also included in this category.

Limitations: IEA occasionally revises its time series to reflect political changes. For example, the IEA has constructed historical energy statistics for countries of the former Soviet Union. In addition, energy statistics for other countries have undergone continuous changes in coverage or methodology in recent years as more detailed energy accounts have become available. Breaks in series are therefore unavoidable.

Regional and income-group figures are computed by the World Bank as a weighted average using total electricity production as weights.

All 36 values

Electricity production from coal sources (% of total) in nearby economies

• Afghanistan — 0% (2021)
• Algeria — 0% (2021)
• Bahrain — 0% (2023)
• Djibouti — 0% (2021)
• Egypt, Arab Rep. — 0% (2021)
• Iran, Islamic Rep. — 0.18% (2024)
• Iraq — 0% (2021)
• Israel — 9.32% (2025)
• Jordan — 14.42% (2024)
• Kuwait

More environment data for OECD members

• Population in the largest city (% of urban population) — 18.14% (2025)
• Population in urban agglomerations of more than 1 million (% of total population) — 38.07% (2025)
• Rural population — 262 million (2025)
• Rural population (% of total population) — 18.68% (2025)
• Urban population — 1.14 billion (2025)
• Urban population (% of total population) — 81.32% (2025)
• Electric power transmission and distribution losses (% of output) — 5.71% (2024)
• Fossil fuel energy consumption (% of total) — 76.74% (2024)
• Aquaculture production (metric tons) — 9.33 million (2024)

Reading data like this

• Where to find free public data, and how to check it before you trust it — 2 min read
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• Real change or random noise? A plain guide to reading your numbers — 2 min read

Questions people ask

What is OECD members's electricity production from coal sources (% of total)?

16.19% in 2025, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1990?

It is down 23.77 percentage points from 39.95% in 1990. The highest value was 39.95% in 1990 and the lowest 15.95% in 2024.

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator EG.ELC.COAL.ZS, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: IEA Energy Statistics Data Browser, International Energy Agency (IEA), uri: https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/data-tools/energy-statistics-data-browser, publisher: International Energy Agency (IEA), date accessed: 2025-03-25 Figures are fetched from the World Bank API and refreshed monthly; see the series on data.worldbank.org. The full definition and method are in the World Bank's metadata glossary. Comparisons use the same World Bank release.

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