The East of England accounted for the highest average household electricity consumption in Great Britain in 2022. That year, it added up to 3,720 kilowatt-hours per household. In comparison, households in the North East of England had the lowest average consumption, at 2,906 kilowatt-hours per household. End user consumption of electricity in the UK Despite continual annual declines in consumption since 2005, households have remained the largest electricity end-users in the UK since 2005. In 2020, amidst lockdown measures following the coronavirus outbreak, the gap between domestic and industrial consumption grew even wider. In 2022, domestic electricity consumption in the UK amounted to 96 terawatt-hours, while industrial consumption recorded the lowest figure of the century, at some 85 terawatt-hours. Declining electricity consumption in the UK Electricity consumption in the UK has seen a dramatic decrease in the past two decades, at least partially related to increased efficiency in equipment and distribution. In 2022, consumption from all electricity suppliers in the UK stood at 275 terawatt-hours. Projections indicate that the UK's electricity consumption will resume a growing trend after 2025, to surpass 32 million tons of oil equivalent in 2040.

The consumption of electricity in the United Kingdom has fluctuated on an annual and seasonal basis throughout the period depicted, and indicated a general downward trend. Demand was consistently higher in the winter months, peaking each year in January or December. In April 2024, electricity consumption in the UK amounted to **** terawatt-hours. Domestic users consume the most electricity Although the industrial sector's electricity demand was higher between 1990 and 2005, domestic consumers have since reclaimed their spot as the largest electricity end users in the UK. East and South East England were the regions with the highest domestic electricity consumption in Great Britain, with more than *** megawatt-hours consumed per household in 2022. Declining electricity demand in the UK Electricity consumption in the UK has seen a mostly continual decrease since the turn of the century. After peaking at ***** terawatt hours in 2005, consumption has fallen below *** terawatt hours in 2020. This is despite the UK's population growing by approximately seven million during this period. Projections on electricity consumption in the UK show that the decreasing trend will last until at least 2025.

Household electricity consumption in the UK has been annually declining for most of the century. Households in the United Kingdom used to consume over 100 terawatt-hours of electricity every year. However, in 2022, domestic electricity consumption dropped below 100 terawatt-hours and it amounted to approximately 92 terawatt-hours in 2023.

In the past decade, electricity consumption in the United Kingdom has been on the decline. Households have consistently ranked as the largest electricity final users in the country. In 2023, households in the UK consumed 93 terawatt-hours of electricity, or roughly 35 percent of the total consumption. Meanwhile, the industrial sector's consumption of electricity has fallen from 117 terawatt-hours in 2005 to 86 terawatt-hours in 2023.

This statistic shows annual electricity consumption per square metre in households in England in 2011. On average all households consumed 71 kilowatt-hours per square metre that year. Terraced houses with an end terrace used up the most electricity per square metre, at 81 kilowatt-hours, followed by flats and multiple person households with no dependent children (77 kilowatt-hours per square metre in each case).

The United Kingdom’s electricity use has been declining since peaking at *** terawatt-hours in 2005. In 2024, the UK's electricity increased on the previous year, amounting to *** terawatt-hours. Electricity consumption in the UK typically follows a seasonal trend, peaking in the winter months. How electricity-intensive is the UK? Despite the continual decline in electricity consumption, the UK remains one of the largest electricity consumers in the world. In terms of per capita electricity consumption, however, the UK ranks low in comparison to other European countries such as Norway, Germany, and France. In 2023, it registered an average of ***** kilowatt-hours per person. The race towards a clean power mix In 2010, gas and coal accounted for roughly ** percent of the UK's power mix. Since then, alongside the EU Renewables Directive, the UK agreed and created its own National Renewable Energy Plan, to increase the use of renewable sources and decrease its fossil fuel dependence. In the past decade, the share of energy consumption in the UK attributable to renewable energy increased slightly, although it was still a small percentage out of the total in 2023.

The United Kingdom’s demand for electricity has been declining since 2005, standing at 318.65 terawatt-hours in 2024. Factors for this decrease include declining population growth in the country, energy efficiency regulations, energy-efficient lighting, and changing consumer habits. Domestic electricity consumption in the UK Households are the largest electricity end-users in the UK. In fact, domestic consumption is the only sector that registered year-over-year growth over the past few years, reaching 93 terawatt-hours in 2023. Nevertheless, the average domestic electricity consumption varied from region to region. Consumption was highest in the East, South East, and South West of England, each registering an average of more than 3,600 kilowatt-hours per household. Declining electricity generation in the UK Keeping up with the decline in demand, electricity generation in the UK has also been decreasing. In 2023, approximately 293 terawatt-hours were produced, the lowest output in at least three decades. Although electricity generation has been declining, renewable generation has increased significantly. As of 2023, renewables accounted for the largest electricity generation capacity in the UK, and that capacity is forecast to more than double by 2050. By 2025, the use of coal is expected to have been completely phased out.

Detailed household load and solar generation in minutely to hourly resolution. This data package contains measured time series data for several small businesses and residential households relevant for household- or low-voltage-level power system modeling. The data includes solar power generation as well as electricity consumption (load) in a resolution up to single device consumption. The starting point for the time series, as well as data quality, varies between households, with gaps spanning from a few minutes to entire days. All measurement devices provided cumulative energy consumption/generation over time. Hence overall energy consumption/generation is retained, in case of data gaps due to communication problems. Measurements were conducted 1-minute intervals, with all data made available in an interpolated, uniform and regular time interval. All data gaps are either interpolated linearly, or filled with data of prior days. Additionally, data in 15 and 60-minute resolution is provided for compatibility with other time series data. Data processing is conducted in Jupyter Notebooks/Python/pandas.

Iceland is by far the largest per capita consumer of electricity worldwide, averaging 51.9 megawatt-hours per person in 2024. This results from a combination of factors, such as low-cost electricity production, increased heating demand, and the presence of energy-intensive industries in the country. Norway, Qatar, and Canada were also some of the world's largest electricity consumers per capita that year. China is the leading overall power consumer Power-intensive industries, the purchasing power of the average citizen, household size, and general power efficiency standards all contribute to the amount of electricity that is consumed per person every year. However, in terms of total electricity consumption, a country's size and population can also play an important role. In 2024, the three most populous countries in the world, namely China, the United States, and India, were also the three largest electricity consumers. Global electricity consumption on the rise In 2023, net electricity consumption worldwide amounted to over 27,000 terawatt-hours, an increase of 30 percent in comparison to a decade earlier. When compared to 1980, global electricity consumption more than tripled. On the generation side, the world is still strongly dependent on fossil fuels. Despite the world's renewable energy capacity quintupling in the last decade, coal and gas combined still accounted for almost 60 percent of global electricity generation in 2023.

This statistic shows annual average electricity consumption in household in England in 2011, by appliance type. Space heating with primary electric heating accounted for the most consumption with an average of 5,249 kilowatt-hours, followed by space heating with additional electric heating at 1,505 kilowatt-hours and water heating (with primary electric heating) at 945 kilowatt-hours.

Energy consumption readings for a sample of 5,567 London Households that took part in the UK Power Networks led Low Carbon London project between November 2011 and February 2014.

Readings were taken at half hourly intervals. The customers in the trial were recruited as a balanced sample representative of the Greater London population.

The dataset contains energy consumption, in kWh (per half hour), unique household identifier, date and time. The CSV file is around 10GB when unzipped and contains around 167million rows.

Within the data set are two groups of customers. The first is a sub-group, of approximately 1100 customers, who were subjected to Dynamic Time of Use (dToU) energy prices throughout the 2013 calendar year period. The tariff prices were given a day ahead via the Smart Meter IHD (In Home Display) or text message to mobile phone. Customers were issued High (67.20p/kWh), Low (3.99p/kWh) or normal (11.76p/kWh) price signals and the times of day these applied. The dates/times and the price signal schedule is availaible as part of this dataset. All non-Time of Use customers were on a flat rate tariff of 14.228pence/kWh.

The signals given were designed to be representative of the types of signal that may be used in the future to manage both high renewable generation (supply following) operation and also test the potential to use high price signals to reduce stress on local distribution grids during periods of stress.

The remaining sample of approximately 4500 customers energy consumption readings were not subject to the dToU tariff.

More information can be found on the Low Carbon London webpage

Some analysis of this data can be seen here.

This statistic shows the average maximum power demand in households in England in 2011. On average all households showed a demand of around ***** watts. Medium or large terraced houses, bungalows and multiple person households with no dependent children had the highest demand for power.

There are large inequalities in energy consumption between countries. The average US citizen still consumes more than ten times the energy of the average Indian, 4-5 times that of a Brazilian, and three times more than China. The gulf between these and very low-income nations is even greater- a number of low-income nations consume less than 100 kilowatt-hour equivalents per person.

Secondly, global average per capita energy consumption has been consistently increasing; between 1970 and 2014, average consumption increased by approximately 45%.

This growth in per capita energy consumption does, however, vary significantly between countries and regions. Most of the growth in per capita energy consumption over the last few decades has been driven by increased consumption in transitioning middle-income (and to a lesser extent, low income countries). In the chart we see a significant increase in consumption in transitioning BRICS economies (China, India and Brazil in particular); China’s per capita use has grown by nearly 250 percent since 2000; India by more than 50 percent; and Brazil by 38 percent.

Whilst global energy growth is growing from developing economies, the trend for many high-income nations is a notable decline. As we see in exemplar trends from the UK and US, the growth we are currently seeing in transitioning economies ended for many high-income nations by over the 1970s and 80s. Both the US and UK peaked in terms of per capita energy consumption in the 1970s, plateauing for several decades until the early 2000s. Since then, we see a reduction in consumption; since 2000, UK usage has decreased by 20 to 25%.

Source

Hannah Ritchie (2019) - "Access to Energy". Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: 'https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access'