As the Age of Electricity moves apace, demand is on a solid upward trajectory in our five-year forecast period from 2026 to 2030. Amid robust growth, the next five years will add on average 50% more electricity demand per year than over the past decade.  The brisk pace will be supported by growing industries, electric vehicles, space cooling, and data centres, among many other end uses. Electricity consumption is now projected to grow at least 2.5 times faster than overall energy demand, hastening the world’s transition to an electricity-based economy. In tandem, the relationship between electricity demand and economic growth is undergoing a paradigm shift. Traditionally, electricity use has closely tracked economic expansion, excluding periods of global financial crises. However, in a marked departure from the past, electricity demand is now expected to outpace economic growth on a global scale through 2030.

While emerging economies continue to be the main pillars of growth in electricity use, demand in advanced economies is now rising again after a 15-year period of stagnation. The resurgence signals a new era in which electricity is a major energy input to some of the most dynamic drivers of global economies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), data centres, advanced manufacturing, and the “electrification of everything”. As a result, both total and per capita electricity consumption will reach new record highs in many regions of the world through 2030.

This chapter presents our global electricity demand forecast and a detailed overview of emerging trends in major economies, which highlight the urgent need for greater power system flexibility (see separate chapters on “Grids” and “Flexibility”). In addition, individual regions and countries are covered more in-depth in the Regional Focus chapter of our report.

Electricity demand in advanced economies is on an upward trajectory again after a 15-year period of stagnation. Flat or declining demand in many advanced economies reflected efficiency improvements across end-use sectors and industrial restructuring. Advanced economies saw overall electricity demand relatively static in 2015-2020 and their share of global growth rising only to 10% in 2020-2025. The shift to growth became apparent in 2025, when advanced economies accounted for almost 20% of additional global demand, up from 17% in 2024. We expect this share to remain close to 20% through 2030, as electricity demand continues to grow due to a combination of increasing consumption from data centres, electric vehicles, air conditioners and heat pumps, among many other sectors.

Over the 2026-2030 outlook period, we expect electricity demand growth to gather pace across the advanced economies. Electricity consumption in the United States is set to rise by close to 2% on average per year – more than twice the rate of the past decade – with data centre expansions continuing to be a major driver. The European Union is forecast to see its electricity demand grow at an average annual rate of 2.3% out to 2030. However, we do not expect EU electricity demand to rise back to its 2021 level before 2028.

India and Southeast Asia are emerging as major engines of overall energy demand. However, in the electricity sector to 2030, the People’s Republic of China (hereafter, “China”) remains the dominant source of growth, accounting for nearly 50% of the global increase due to its much larger market size. Over the next five years, China alone is set to add electricity demand equivalent to the European Union’s current consumption. Electricity demand growth in China is expected to moderate to an average of 4.9% annually over the 2026-2030 forecast period, down from the 6.5% average recorded over the previous decade. By contrast, India is expected to post an increase of 6.4% and Southeast Asia at 5.3%, an acceleration from the slower rates in 2025, based on expectations of continued robust economic growth and rising electrification.

Global electricity demand increased year-on-year by 3% in 2025, following 4.4% in 2024. While intense heatwaves across many regions bolstered power use in 2024, comparably milder weather and weaker industrial and manufacturing activity in some regions tempered the overall pace in 2025. However, we expect demand growth to pick up in 2026-2030, to an average 3.6% over the next five years – a significant acceleration compared to the 2.8% annual rate of the past decade. This corresponds to adding on average approximately 1 100 TWh each year through 2030 globally – versus an average 700 TWh per year from 2015 to 2025. Global electricity consumption will reach 33 600 TWh in 2030, up from 28 200 TWh in 2025.

Many major electricity consuming countries and regions saw weaker demand growth in 2025 versus the year earlier, largely due to a slowdown in industry and manufacturing amid uncertain trade policies, combined with milder weather patterns compared to 2024. China and India experienced moderate growth of 5.1% and 1.4%, respectively. Southeast Asia also saw lower growth of around 3% y o y, down from a much higher 8.6% in 2024. Electricity demand growth in the United States eased marginally to 2.1% in 2025, from 2.8% the previous year. In the European Union, demand rose at the more modest pace of 0.9%, following a moderate recovery of 1.6% in 2024.

In 2025, approximately 58% of the increase in global electricity demand came from China, compared to 52% in 2024. Overall, emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs), including China, accounted for about 80% of global growth in 2025, and are expected to maintain that share over the next five years. This compares with an average 95% in the past decade, reflecting an increasing contribution from advanced economies.

Over the forecast period, electricity demand is projected to post strong growth across all major consuming segments. The buildings sector – including residential and commercial – is expected to see the largest absolute growth, and contribute 49% to additional global demand between 2025 and 2030. Higher electricity use from space cooling, data centres and heat pumps make up almost half of the growth in the buildings sector worldwide out to 2030. Industrial electricity consumption is also expected to accelerate compared to the past decade, in particular from light industries. At the same time, fuelled by the rapid uptake of electric vehicles, transportation’s share of demand growth is forecast to rise to more than 10%, double from the past five years. As the world’s transition to an electricity-based economy is hastened, the share of electricity in total final consumption is set to increase from 21% in 2025 to 24% in 2030.

Electricity demand rose in both the United States and the European Union in 2024 and 2025, with continued strong growth forecast for 2026-2030. However, the sectoral composition of this growth and its underlying drivers differ between the two economies.

Electricity demand in the United States increased by 2.1% in 2025, following 2.8% growth in 2024, when hotter summer temperatures boosted consumption. In both years, the buildings sector – residential and commercial combined – accounted for over 70% of the country’s demand growth. In 2025, in addition to strong economic activity and expanding data‑centre loads, higher space‑heating needs due to colder winter temperatures, with about 10% higher heating degree days (HDDs), also supported demand.

US electricity use is set to add more than 420 TWh in total over the next five years. The rapid expansion of data centres is expected to make up about 50% of demand growth out to 2030. The buildings sector excluding data centres will also remain a significant contributor to growth, largely due to rising consumption from space cooling and heat pumps. Growth from the industrial sector is expected to be another major driver, supported by reshoring and other new large loads such as semiconductor and battery manufacturing plants. The transport sector is also expected to contribute to demand growth with rising numbers of EVs.

The European Union’s electricity consumption rose by an estimated 0.9% in 2025, following a 1.6% increase in 2024. Higher space‑heating needs, due to a spike in colder winter temperatures in Q1 2025, combined with a sharp rise in AC use in the commercial and residential sectors, in the wake of record-breaking summer heatwaves, significantly boosted the region’s electricity demand. The continued uptake of EVs and heat pumps were also key drivers of growth in 2025. A detailed analysis of the EU demand trends in 2025 can be found in the regional focus section of our report.

EU electricity demand is forecast to increase by about 300 TWh, over the next five years. This comes after two years of declines in 2022-2023 and modest recovery since then. Electricity consumption in the EU industrial sector fell by about 6% in both 2022 and 2023, driven by the production declines in the energy-intensive industries amid the energy crisis. Although the industrial sector’s demand decline reversed in 2024, with a modest close to 2% increase, a meaningful recovery has yet to emerge, as we estimate demand remained broadly flat in 2025.

Assuming EU industrial demand recovers at a moderate pace over our outlook period, around 50 TWh of growth is forecast by 2030. The buildings sector is expected to be the main contributor to demand growth. While rising power use from data centres will provide a sizeable share, demand from cooling and heat pumps, as well as continued growth in the commercial sector, will account for most of the increase in the buildings sector. Transport follows closely behind, with EV adoption accelerating, adding more than 100 TWh to demand through 2030.

China’s net electricity demand surpassed 9 500 TWh in 2025, up by 5.1% y-o-y. This is a slowdown compared to the previous two years, when demand grew by 6.6% in 2023 and 7.0% in 2024. While demand growth in buildings and transport remained strong, led mainly by increased AC use during summer heatwaves, and a growing fleet of EVs, global economic uncertainty, trade restrictions and a structural slowdown in domestic demand resulted in limited gains in China’s industrial sector in 2025. Despite this, industry remains the major driver of growth in the country, which accounted for half of the total gains in electricity demand in the past five years.

We expect these trends to continue over the next five years, with electricity demand set to rise by an annual average 4.9%. While a slowdown compared to the 6.5% average observed over the 10-year 2016-2025 period in relative terms, in absolute terms, average annual demand growth rises from 450 TWh to 520 TWh. Out to 2030, China is expected to add about 2 600 TWh to electricity consumption, roughly equivalent to the current demand of the European Union.

The electrification of the Chinese economy, defined as the share of electricity in total final consumption, has outpaced that of any other major economy, particularly over the last 15 years. While electrification shares have stagnated just above 20% in the United States, the European Union, Australia and New Zealand, and between 25% and 30% in Japan (the most electrified major economy globally), China’s electrification has doubled since 2005, surpassing 27% in 2025.

After four years of growth rates above 6%, India’s demand grew by a modest 1.4% in 2025. Despite strong fundamentals supporting increased demand of 5.8% in the first four months of the year, the early arrival of monsoon in May brought milder temperatures and increased precipitation, leading to lower use of AC and agricultural pumping. Cooling degree days were more than 7% lower in 2025 than in 2024, with a particularly sharp decrease in June (-12%), when hot weather has driven, on average, 15% of monthly demand nationwide in recent years.

In the five-year period between 2021 and 2025, net electricity demand in India grew by close to 430 TWh. Space cooling contributed 15% to total demand growth, and to around one-third of the gains in the buildings sector. This sector, which includes households and services, has driven half of the total growth in India over the past five years. Industry accounted for 36% of total growth, while agriculture and transport provided the rest.

Over the forecast period, we expect demand in India to grow at an average 6.4% per year through 2030, in line with IMF’s GDP forecasts. India is expected to add over 570 TWh to its annual consumption in the next five years. The industrial sector is expected to contribute to a third of this growth, while the share of households and services will decrease slightly compared to the past five years. The growing stock and usage of AC units in 2026-2030 results in cooling to account for over 20% of total demand growth in our forecast. Electrification and development of India’s agriculture and transport infrastructure lead to these two sectors jointly driving around one‑fifth of total demand growth to 2030.

Electricity demand across India has shown significant seasonal variations over the past decade, with a cumulative increase in peak loads of 54%, from 162 GW in 2017 to 250 GW in 2024. In recent years, the national peak load consistently hit its highest levels during the summer months amidst long heatwaves, reflecting increased cooling demand and high pre-monsoon agricultural electricity use.

The interplay between regional loads determines the profile of India’s electricity demand and offers opportunities for interregional trade given diverse seasonality. The country’s national power grid is divided into five regional grids: Northern Region (NR), Western Region (WR), Southern Region (SR), Eastern Region (ER) and Northeastern Region (NER). These grids, which were initially isolated, reached full interconnection at a national level in 2013. The current inter-regional capacity of the grid is above 120 GW, while both inter-state and intra-state transmission capacity is growing steadily under India’s Green Energy Corridor schemes. These grid expansions are essential to integrate India’s target of 500 GW of non-fossil installed capacity by 2030, up from 267 GW in December 2025, but also to meet the energy and peak load requirements of each region and state.