Which nations have the highest energy intensity?

How much energy does it take to fuel an economy? Measuring energy intensity, the total energy used per unit of GDP, is one possible way of finding out. Pew Research has crunched the numbers to see which nations have the highest and lowest energy intensities. Pew explains their methodology: “While energy intensity can be calculated several ways, for simplicity we use the version adopted by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA): the total energy used by a country in a year (in British thermal units, or Btu) divided by the country’s GDP for that year (in constant 2005 U.S. dollars on a purchasing-power parity basis, so the data are comparable across time and national borders). The resulting figure represents how many Btu the country used per dollar of GDP.”

Energy intensity has been on the decline in the past few decades. Since 1993, there has been a worldwide decrease by 18.7%. The largest reductions have come from former Soviet bloc nations such as Estonia and Slovakia. Developing nations have inversely shown a rise in energy intensity. The U.S. Virgin Islands topped the list, mainly due to its high energy consumption in order to desalinate the local drinking water.

Author: Donald Armbrecht is a freelance writer and social media producer.

Image: Eskom’s electric pylons are pictured in Soweto, southwest of Johannesburg. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko