World Energy Outlook 2006

to drive prices up. Demand appears to have become less sensitive to increases
in income than in the past. Partly, this reflects improvements in end-use
efficiency and a shift towards electricity in stationary energy uses in industry,
services and households.
toe per capita
Figure 11.15: World Stationary Final Fossil Fuel Demand and Real GDP
Per Capita
0.70 1971 1980 1986 1997 2004
0.65
0.60
0.55
0.45
5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5 8.0 8.5 9.0 9.5
Source: IEA analysis.
GDP per capita (thousand $ in year-2005 dollars, PPP)
Electricity demand has continued to rise in almost constant proportion to
income in recent years (Figure 11.16). There was a temporary decoupling of
electricity demand from per-capita income at the beginning of the 1990s
following the break-up of the former Soviet Union, but the linear
relationship quickly re-established itself. Each thousand-dollar increase in percapita
GDP (in 2005 dollars and PPP terms) has added 0.02 tonnes of oil
equivalent to per-capita electricity demand. The rate of increase in demand
relative to GDP in 2002 to 2004 was slightly above this average and closer to
the average of the period 1971-1990. Large changes in energy prices,
including recent increases, have had only a limited impact on electricity
prices, and no discernible effect on electricity use during the period
1971-2004.
294 World Energy Outlook 2006 - FOCUS ON KEY TOPICS
© OECD/IEA, 2007