Countries by Electric Generating Capacity

What Electric Generating Capacity Measures

Installed electricity generating capacity in kilowatts from the frozen public-domain CIA World Factbook snapshot.

Why This Ranking Matters

Examining Electric Generating Capacity across all countries reveals patterns that might not be obvious at the national level. Regional clusters, outlier nations, and historical trajectories all become clearer when the full global picture is assembled in a single ranking.

Global Range

Values range from 3.0K kW (Niue) to 2.95 billion kW (China) — a 983.0K-fold difference across 209 countries.

Regional Patterns

Asian countries lead with 8 entries in the top 20, though representation spans multiple continents. Regional factors clearly play a role, but outliers from other parts of the world show that national policy and geography matter as much as continental trends.

The distribution is highly right-skewed — a few countries have exceptionally high values that pull the average well above the median. The median (3.43 million kW) is far more representative than the mean (43.43 million kW).

Notable Outliers

China stands far above the rest, with a value 139% higher than second-place United States. This extraordinary lead suggests unique national circumstances — geographic scale, resource endowment, or policy choices — that set it apart from even its closest competitors.

Continental Leaders

Asia

China

2.95 billion kW

North America

United States

1.24 billion kW

Europe

Russia

301.93 million kW

South America

Brazil

240.25 million kW

Oceania

Australia

108.19 million kW

Africa

South Africa

65.99 million kW