These two countries consume 70% of the world’s coal…and it’s who you think it is

Even as countries are making a move towards renewable energy, coal still remains the largest source of electricity generation. Two countries consumed a staggering 70 per cent of the world’s coal. It is perhaps of no surprise that these nations are China and India, also with the largest populations.

According to data compiled by Visual Capitalist from the Energy Institute’s Statistical Review of World Energy 2026, China was the world’s largest coal consumer, using up 92.2 exajoules in 2025, which was four times the coal used by India. It consumed 55.6 per cent of the world’s coal.

Meanwhile, India ranked second with consumption of 23.1 EJ, which accounted for nearly 14 per cent of the global consumption.

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Both India and China together accounted for 70 per cent of all coal used worldwide. While India remained the second-highest consumer, it was outweighed by China’s vast electricity system, industrial base as well as the manufacturing sectors, which are heavily coal dependent.

The high consumption is only one of the indications of the central role coal plays in growing economies.

The United States comes in third with 8.7 EJ, followed by Indonesia at 5.2 EJ and Japan at 4.4 EJ – they together don’t even make one-fifth of China’s total.

GLOBAL COAL DEMAND

Global coal demand increased in 2025 despite a decline in coal-fired electricity generation in China and India for the first time in over 50 years. The rise was mainly driven by rapidly industrialising economies in Southeast Asia, while the United States also saw a reversal in coal use during the year.

Coal consumption continued to fall in many advanced European economies as coal plants were retired and renewable energy expanded. Demand increased in parts of Asia and the US even as Europe moved in the opposite direction.

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Much of the global growth came from Southeast Asia. Indonesia and Vietnam have more than doubled their coal consumption since 2015 by expanding coal-fired generating capacity to meet rising electricity demand. Indonesia is now the world’s fourth-largest coal consumer, and Vietnam ranks ninth after another decade of rapid growth.

Across much of Asia, coal remains an affordable and reliable energy source to support manufacturing, urbanisation and increasing electricity needs.

In the US coal consumption rose by 10% in 2025, marking one of the largest year-on-year reversals.

In Europe, coal consumption continued to decline across many advanced economies. Germany, Poland and Czechia remain among Europe’s largest coal consumers, but most other European countries account for only a small fraction of global demand.

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