One in twelve
Roughly one in twelve people on Earth don't have electricity access
In 2024, 657 million of people on Earth had no electricity access. That is about 8%, or roughly one in twelve (more exact ratio is closer to 1 in 12,4). The number is smaller than it used to be. In 1998 about 1.6 billion people lived without electricity, and since then the world has added around 2 billion people. So the progress is there, yet still.
"Access" in international statistics means a source that can provide very basic lighting and charge a phone or power a radio for 4 hours a day. So that is a pretty low bar. Many people who count as having access still don't have reliable or sufficient power, and the real gap is probably bigger than one in twelve.
A lamp is a familiar object, and here it lights up a group of (eleven) people gathered around an open book. One figure sits apart at the edge, outside the beam of light.
Data: Our World in Data, World Bank
