plate 030

India had 27 million ACs for 1.3 billion people

Air conditioners in use by country, 2016 (latest IEA country data), total units and units per 100 people.

The energy switch
  1. 1. China now uses more electricity per person than the EU
  2. 2. Solar now makes more of Brazil's power than fossil fuels
  3. 3. Rooftop solar now outsizes coal on Australia's main grid
  4. 4. Volcanic heat makes nearly 45% of the power Kenya generates
  5. 5. France swung from power importer to record exporter
  6. 6. Over a quarter of China's new heavy trucks are electric
  7. 7. More than two in three cars Nepal imports are electric
  8. 8. The US now ships a quarter of the world's LNG
  9. 9. Kazakhstan mines more uranium than Canada and Namibia combined
  10. 10. Indonesia now mines two-thirds of the world's nickel
  11. 11. India had 27 million ACs for 1.3 billion people
  12. 12. Sun and wind now beat fossil fuels in Chile
  13. 13. Two in three rickshaws sold in India are electric
  14. 14. Argentina mined 60% more lithium in just one year
  15. 15. Ethiopia added over a third of Africa's new renewable power
  16. 16. Only 16 countries are building new coal power plants
  17. 17. Egypt's sun and wind now outproduce its Nile dams
  18. 18. The price of lithium fell 86% in three years
  19. 19. Pakistan now gets more power from solar than from coal
  20. 20. Oil now makes less than a third of Saudi power
  21. 21. The Philippines is building more solar than it already runs
  22. 22. Nine in ten Indonesians now cook with clean fuels
  23. 23. Rwanda spread electricity faster than any country since 2014
27m

ACs in India in 2016 for 1.3 billion people: 2 per 100. The US had about 116 per 100.

4x

India's cooling need (3,084 cooling degree days) vs the US (764).

5.6bn

ACs projected worldwide by 2050, up from 1.6bn. China, India and Indonesia drive about half the growth.

Source: IEA, The Future of Cooling (2018), Table 1.1 and Table 2.1, 2016 (stock); 2050 (Baseline projection)
the numbers & method
India had 27 million ACs for 1.3 billion people. Source: IEA, The Future of Cooling (2018), Table 1.1 and Table 2.1, 2016 (stock); 2050 (Baseline projection).
ACs in use (m)Per 100 people
China56941.1
United States374114.0
Japan148116.5
European Union9719.0
Korea59115.7
Middle East4720.3
India272.0
Brazil2712.9
Mexico1613.0
Indonesia124.6
South Africa35.5

Claim types Fact · Forecast

Stock includes residential and commercial units. progrss derived units per 100 people from the IEA stock and its 2016 population figures (Table 2.1), both rounded. The IEA gives no 2050 stock by country. The 2050 world figure (5.6bn) is the IEA Baseline Scenario. A later IEA WEO (2023, as reported by press) puts India at 24 ACs per 100 households, three times the 2010 level.

Published 13 Oct 2026

license this plate

what connects to this

004 going electric Africa's solar imports more than doubled since early 2024 005 power shift China makes more electricity than the US and EU combined 043 new routes India went from 1% to 37% of Russia's crude sales