1.2 Billion People Still Live Without Electricity

One in seven people on Earth lives without electricity. That's 1.18 billion people — far more than the 730 million official estimates suggest.

While wealthy nations scramble to power AI data centers and electric vehicles, a satellite study revealed the true scale of energy poverty: 60% higher than governments report. Progress in connecting people to power has stalled since 2020, even as global energy demand hits record highs.

The gap between the world's energy haves and have-nots is widening, and the consequences reach far beyond individual hardship.

The Invisible Billion

University of Michigan researcher Brian Min wanted better numbers. Official estimates rely on government surveys that often miss remote populations and face political pressure to undercount energy poverty.

So his team analyzed satellite data over seven years, photographing regions nightly to track lighting patterns. The results, published in Joule, were stark: nearly 450 million more people live without electricity than officially recorded.

"If you don't have access to electricity, you're often literally in the dark," Min explained. No utility company tracks your household. Roads are inadequate, making census-taking difficult. Governments have incentives to downplay the numbers.

The hardest-hit region is Sub-Saharan Africa, where 35 million people gained electricity access between 2020 and 2023. But the population grew by 30 million, so net progress was just 5 million. By 2054, the region's population will balloon from 1.29 billion to 2.2 billion — a 70% increase.

Democracy Lights the Way

Energy access isn't just about technology or money. It's about governance.

"Democracies actually do a better job at reaching more remote and rural communities," Min found. Kenya exemplifies this: electrification jumped from single digits in the 1990s to over 75% today, coinciding with democratic reforms and increased public accountability.

In authoritarian systems, wealthy cities monopolize political power and direct investment their way. The result? Communities living kilometers apart can have vastly different energy access, even within the same country.

The Cooking Tipping Point

Georgia Tech's Valerie Thomas identifies the most transformative use of electricity: cooking.

In the poorest regions, women spend entire days gathering fuel, then cook indoors over open flames. It's a massive time sink and creates dangerous indoor air pollution. "If you look at environmental health impacts anywhere, cooking with biomass is one of the biggest killers," Thomas said.

But electric cooking demands serious power — a simple toaster uses 1,000 watts. That electricity must be consistent and affordable, creating a chicken-and-egg problem for development.

Solar's Second Chance

Why hasn't renewable energy "leapfrogged" centralized grids the way cell phones bypassed landlines?

Early solar systems weren't reliable enough. "A PV panel on your roof is cheaper and does what people want, but they're often not maintained well," Thomas noted. Remote communities lacked the resources to fix broken systems.

But solar-plus-storage is changing the game. Plummeting costs and improved reliability are creating new pathways to energy access. At recent climate negotiations, countries pledged $1.3 trillion in financing for developing nations.

Yet disasters worsened by climate change — heat waves, floods — continue undermining progress. Some developing nations are doubling down on extracting their own coal, oil, and gas rather than waiting for promised aid.

The Real Cost of Darkness

Energy poverty creates a vicious cycle. Without electricity, families burn kerosene, wood, even plastic for light and heat. This drives ecosystem destruction, air pollution, and health problems that deepen poverty.

Meanwhile, wealthy nations treat energy as something to conserve. But for the world's poorest, energy is the ladder out of poverty — essential for education, healthcare, economic opportunity, and adapting to climate change.

The trend lines are moving in the right direction, but in a world getting hotter and more crowded, no one can afford to wait.