Latin America & Caribbean | Access to electricity (% of population)

Access to electricity is the percentage of population with access to electricity. Electrification data are collected from industry, national surveys and international sources. Development relevance: Maintaining reliable and secure electricity services while seeking to rapidly decarbonize power systems is a key challenge for countries throughout the world. More and more countries are becoming increasing dependent on reliable and secure electricity supplies to underpin economic growth and community prosperity. This reliance is set to grow as more efficient and less carbon intensive forms of power are developed and deployed to help decarbonize economies. Energy is necessary for creating the conditions for economic growth. It is impossible to operate a factory, run a shop, grow crops or deliver goods to consumers without using some form of energy. Access to electricity is particularly crucial to human development as electricity is, in practice, indispensable for certain basic activities, such as lighting, refrigeration and the running of household appliances, and cannot easily be replaced by other forms of energy. Individuals' access to electricity is one of the most clear and un-distorted indication of a country's energy poverty status. Electricity access is increasingly at the forefront of governments' preoccupations, especially in the developing countries. As a consequence, a lot of rural electrification programs and national electrification agencies have been created in these countries to monitor more accurately the needs and the status of rural development and electrification. Use of energy is important in improving people's standard of living. But electricity generation also can damage the environment. Whether such damage occurs depends largely on how electricity is generated. For example, burning coal releases twice as much carbon dioxide - a major contributor to global warming - as does burning an equivalent amount of natural gas. Statistical concept and methodology: The World Bank’s Global Electrification Database (GED) compiles nationally representative household survey data, and occasionally census data, from sources going back as far as 1990. The database also incorporates data from the Socio-Economic Database for Latin America and the Caribbean (SEDLAC), Middle East and North Africa Poverty Database (MNAPOV) and the Europe and Central Asia Poverty Database (ECAPOV), which are based on similar surveys. At the time of this analysis, the GED contained 1,375 surveys for 149 countries in 1990-2021.
Publisher
The World Bank
Origin
Latin America & Caribbean
Records
63
Source
Latin America & Caribbean | Access to electricity (% of population)
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1980
1981
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1984
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1991
1992 88.71432276
1993 89.31822491
1994 90.22308287
1995 88.59950584
1996 89.55790882
1997 90.0158644
1998 90.63688727
1999 91.24758769
2000 91.73368915
2001 92.33918582
2002 92.63024204
2003 92.71473771
2004 93.19872068
2005 93.5237582
2006 94.25588031
2007 94.48735427
2008 95.23412015
2009 95.40683009
2010 95.8832609
2011 96.19956359
2012 96.58370863
2013 96.86610551
2014 97.03592198
2015 97.28998896
2016 97.48072233
2017 97.71354236
2018 97.75991237
2019 98.00483435
2020 98.15788934
2021 98.25931565
2022

Latin America & Caribbean | Access to electricity (% of population)

Access to electricity is the percentage of population with access to electricity. Electrification data are collected from industry, national surveys and international sources. Development relevance: Maintaining reliable and secure electricity services while seeking to rapidly decarbonize power systems is a key challenge for countries throughout the world. More and more countries are becoming increasing dependent on reliable and secure electricity supplies to underpin economic growth and community prosperity. This reliance is set to grow as more efficient and less carbon intensive forms of power are developed and deployed to help decarbonize economies. Energy is necessary for creating the conditions for economic growth. It is impossible to operate a factory, run a shop, grow crops or deliver goods to consumers without using some form of energy. Access to electricity is particularly crucial to human development as electricity is, in practice, indispensable for certain basic activities, such as lighting, refrigeration and the running of household appliances, and cannot easily be replaced by other forms of energy. Individuals' access to electricity is one of the most clear and un-distorted indication of a country's energy poverty status. Electricity access is increasingly at the forefront of governments' preoccupations, especially in the developing countries. As a consequence, a lot of rural electrification programs and national electrification agencies have been created in these countries to monitor more accurately the needs and the status of rural development and electrification. Use of energy is important in improving people's standard of living. But electricity generation also can damage the environment. Whether such damage occurs depends largely on how electricity is generated. For example, burning coal releases twice as much carbon dioxide - a major contributor to global warming - as does burning an equivalent amount of natural gas. Statistical concept and methodology: The World Bank’s Global Electrification Database (GED) compiles nationally representative household survey data, and occasionally census data, from sources going back as far as 1990. The database also incorporates data from the Socio-Economic Database for Latin America and the Caribbean (SEDLAC), Middle East and North Africa Poverty Database (MNAPOV) and the Europe and Central Asia Poverty Database (ECAPOV), which are based on similar surveys. At the time of this analysis, the GED contained 1,375 surveys for 149 countries in 1990-2021.
Publisher
The World Bank
Origin
Latin America & Caribbean
Records
63
Source