About this chart race
This race compares annual electricity generated from coal, measured in terawatt-hours (TWh). The United States leads the selected countries in 2000 with 1,966.27 TWh. China takes first place in 2006 and stays ahead through 2024. At the end, China records 5,827.60 TWh, followed by India at 1,517.90 TWh and the United States at 652.16 TWh.
Thirteen countries are included: each appeared in the source’s annual top ten at least once between 2000 and 2024, and each has all 25 annual observations. The period deliberately ends in 2024 because Indonesia has no 2025 coal-generation value in the downloaded dataset. Regional aggregates are excluded. This is a selected-country comparison, not a complete global total.
The values use the coal_electricity_twh indicator in Our World in Data’s energy dataset, downloaded on 14 October 2026. Its source compilation includes Ember and the Energy Institute. The entire race uses one downloaded series consistently. No country’s missing year is filled with an invented figure, and values from different source releases are not mixed.
Annual figures may include estimates and revisions. Electricity generation is different from coal extraction, coal consumption, generating capacity, emissions or the percentage of national electricity supplied by coal. Movement between annual observations is interpolated for animation; it does not add new measurements. The historical endpoint is 2024, not a claim about current 2026 output.
This animated ranking shows how annual coal-fired electricity generation changed across 13 series between 2000 and 2024. The bars re-order themselves as the years advance, so overtakes are visible as they happen rather than hidden inside a table. Use the list on the left to choose exactly who competes, drag the slider to jump to any year, or open the table view to read the underlying numbers.
As of 2024, China leads with 5,827.60 TWh.
Included in this race
China, United States, India, Japan, Germany, South Korea, South Africa, Indonesia, Russia, Australia, Vietnam, United Kingdom, Poland.
Source
Data from Ember / Energy Institute via Our World in Data. Check the stated period and methodology. Animated transitions between source observations are visual interpolation, not additional measurements.
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