World Energy Outlook 2006

Access to Electricity
The number of people without electricity today stands at around 1.6 billion,
equal to over a quarter of the world population. 8 Electrification is very
unevenly distributed worldwide. 9 Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are the
regions with the highest proportion of the population still without access to
electricity, both in urban and rural areas (Figure 6.17). With less than 7% of
their population having access to electricity, Burkina Faso, Mozambique, the
Democratic Republic of Congo and Afghanistan are the least electrified
countries in the world.
Overall, 80% of those without access to electricity currently live in rural areas
of developing countries. In the last 15 years, the number of people without
electricity has fallen from 2 billion in 1990 to 1.6 billion in 2005, with China
recording the swiftest progress. Excluding China, the number of people
without electricity has steadily grown over the past 15 years. Because of
continuing population growth, if no new policies are put in place, there will
still be 1.4 billion people lacking access to electricity in 2030. To reach the
Millennium Development Goals, this number would need to fall to less than
one billion by 2015.
8. The electrification database has been updated since WEO-2004 to take into account a number of
factors, in particular rapid population growth outrunning the electrification process in the poorest
countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.
9 See Annex B for detailed data on electrification by country.
Chapter 6 - Power Sector Outlook 157
© OECD/IEA, 2007
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