Electricity prices

Q2 2025 update: The average electricity price in the world is USD 0.165 kWh for residential users and USD 0.161 USD per kWh for businesses. The highest residential electricity prices are in Europe at USD 0.245 per kWh and the lowest are in Asia with USD 0.084. Africa (0.127), Oceania (0.240), North America (0.139), and South America (0.206) are in between.

The highest business electricity prices are in Oceania at USD 0.266 per kWh and the lowest prices are in Africa (0.123) and Asia (0.107). On the other continents: Europe (0.204), North America (0.155), and South America (0.200).

See the price averages across 35 country groups.

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World Average Electricity Prices, USD / kWh

The world average electricity price increased by 4.49 percent for households and by 3.19 percent for businesses since Q1 2025.

World electricity prices: time chart

European Average Electricity Prices, USD / kWh

Electricity prices in Europe increased by 4.79 percent for households and by 4.19 percent for businesses compared to Q1 2025.

Electricity prices in Europe: time chart

Percent Change in Electricity Prices by Continent

Electricity Prices by Continent: Quarterly and Annual Changes
Continent Households
(quarterly change)
Households
(annual change)
Business
(quarterly change)
Business
(annual change)
Africa 4.49% 7.42% 5.86% 12.46%
Asia 4.92% -0.01% 1.69% -0.97%
Europe 4.79% 10.15% 4.19% 7.58%
North America 2.60% 0.07% 4.62% -3.15%
Oceania 8.57% 4.96% 4.96% 27.74%
South America 1.86% 5.91% 0.33% 2.58%


Notable Electricity Price Changes

In Q2 2025, electricity prices increased by over 10 percent in Argentina, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkey. Prices declined moderately in a few European countries but not in countries with regulated prices.

These confirm the pattern that large price changes result from regulatory decisions and not from commodity price changes. The power component is less than half of the final bill, the rest being the cost of transmission and distribution and taxes, both of which are regulated.

And even the power component is subject to government interference. During Covid, power companies were subsidized, while during 2022-2023 prices were capped in many countries. Phasing out these caps has contributed to several price increases in Q2 2025.

Compare Electricity Prices by Country

The table shows the average residential and business electricity rates for the period from 2023 to 2025. Such averages are better for comparing countries as they avoid quarter-to-quarter price volatility. You can also see a world map of electricity prices.

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Residential and Business Electricity Prices by Country (2023-2025 averages)
Countries Residential electricity rates
in USD/kWh,
2023–2025 average
Business electricity rates
in USD/kWh,
2023–2025 average
Bermuda 0.462 0.269
Ireland 0.443
Italy 0.422 0.442
Cayman Islands 0.413 0.369
Liechtenstein 0.410 0.280
Germany 0.402 0.286
Belgium 0.400 0.262
UK 0.397 0.445
Switzerland 0.361 0.284
Bahamas 0.357 0.377
Denmark 0.355 0.230
Czech Republic 0.352 0.230
Austria 0.336 0.292
Cyprus 0.334 0.304
Cape Verde 0.327 0.199
Barbados 0.314 0.332
Guatemala 0.295 0.186
Netherlands 0.288 0.230
Estonia 0.286 0.162
Jamaica 0.285 0.242
Latvia 0.283 0.167
France 0.278 0.188
Lithuania 0.270 0.181
Australia 0.254 0.237
Uruguay 0.250 0.123
El Salvador 0.247 0.218
Greece 0.246 0.239
Luxembourg 0.246 0.208
Honduras 0.244 0.242
Spain 0.243 0.138
Singapore 0.234 0.281
Portugal 0.231 0.152
Sweden 0.230
Poland 0.229 0.394
Japan 0.229 0.207
Sierra Leone 0.224 0.291
Slovenia 0.223 0.189
Kenya 0.220 0.176
Mali 0.217 0.157
Belize 0.217 0.173
Aruba 0.213 0.318
Slovakia 0.209 0.328
Chile 0.206 0.153
New Zealand 0.204
Burkina Faso 0.204 0.211
Gabon 0.203 0.168
Philippines 0.203 0.151
Rwanda 0.203 0.076
Colombia 0.201 0.200
Togo 0.192 0.177
Finland 0.187 0.127
Hong Kong 0.187 0.176
South Africa 0.186 0.093
Peru 0.186 0.162
USA 0.181 0.148
Senegal 0.181
Nicaragua 0.176 0.218
Romania 0.175 0.228
Israel 0.174 0.111
Panama 0.172 0.193
Uganda 0.171 0.120
Costa Rica 0.169 0.230
Iceland 0.168 0.081
Croatia 0.168 0.167
Moldova 0.163 0.138
Brazil 0.159 0.128
Norway 0.152 0.103
Cambodia 0.150
Bulgaria 0.146 0.140
Malta 0.145 0.162
Namibia 0.136
Mauritius 0.134 0.134
Madagascar 0.129 0.168
Mozambique 0.127 0.080
Ivory Coast 0.127 0.228
Thailand 0.127 0.129
Ghana 0.127 0.120
South Korea 0.126 0.116
Serbia 0.125 0.140
N. Maced. 0.125 0.236
Sri Lanka 0.125 0.100
Canada 0.123 0.106
Swaziland 0.121 0.086
Morocco 0.118 0.108
Dom. Rep. 0.117 0.174
Albania 0.117 0.133
Armenia 0.111 0.109
Hungary 0.108 0.209
Mexico 0.106 0.211
Maldives 0.105
Lesotho 0.102 0.021
Bosnia & Herz. 0.099 0.112
Ecuador 0.097 0.091
Taiwan 0.096 0.175
Botswana 0.094 0.112
Indonesia 0.092 0.071
Tanzania 0.091 0.093
Jordan 0.090 0.127
Malawi 0.087 0.146
Cameroon 0.083 0.175
Belarus 0.083 0.109
UAE 0.080 0.110
Vietnam 0.078 0.077
Ukraine 0.077 0.140
India 0.077 0.126
China 0.076 0.094
Argentina 0.074 0.092
Venezuela 0.069 0.081
Tunisia 0.067 0.114
Turkey 0.067 0.147
Georgia 0.067 0.106
Pakistan 0.065 0.157
DR Congo 0.064 0.075
Russia 0.063 0.092
Bangladesh 0.062 0.099
Kazakhstan 0.055 0.074
Trinidad & Tobago 0.055 0.053
Paraguay 0.053 0.045
Saudi Arabia 0.051 0.068
Afghanistan 0.050
Malaysia 0.049 0.128
Bahrain 0.048 0.077
Azerbaijan 0.047 0.064
Suriname 0.046
Nepal 0.043 0.069
Algeria 0.040 0.035
Kuwait 0.037 0.065
Nigeria 0.036 0.051
Uzbekistan 0.034 0.065
Qatar 0.032 0.036
Laos 0.029
Oman 0.028 0.198
Burma 0.026 0.095
Egypt 0.024 0.037
Zambia 0.023 0.036
Cuba 0.018
Iraq 0.015 0.045
Angola 0.015 0.012
Bhutan 0.015 0.019
Syria 0.014 0.039
Kyrgyzstan 0.014 0.038
Sudan 0.007 0.035
Ethiopia 0.006 0.019
Iran 0.003


What Exaplains Electricity Price Differences by Country

Looking at the table above, one observes very substantial differences in electricity prices around the world. The most expensive countries in terms of electricity prices are a mix of two kinds. One kind is remote islands like Bermuda and the Bahamas that rely on fossil fuels for electricity generation with no option to import electricity from a neighbor. The high cost of electricity generation in those countries explains the high prices. The second kind are advanced countries, primarily in Europe, where high prices are due to high taxes and high transmission and distribution costs.

The lowest residential electricity prices are in Ethiopia, Iran, Syria, Sudan and a few other countries where one kWh of electricity costs less than USD 0.10. Some of these counties, such as Iran and Libya, subsidize their electricity prices as they are rich in energy resources. Others, such as Ethiopia, are pressed to subsidize prices as incomes in the country are very low and electricity is an essential product.

Of the big economies, prices in the U.S. are close to the world average whereas China’s electricity prices are about half of those in the U.S. In contrast, prices are much higher in Japan and, especially, in Germany.

Note also that business electricity prices are generally lower than household electricity prices, reflecting the effort to maintain industrial competitiveness.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration has an interesting overview explaining factors explaining electricity prices.

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Data Parameters

The prices are per kWh and include all items in the electricity bill such as the distribution and energy cost, various environmental and fuel cost charges and taxes. The residential prices are calculated using the average annual household electricity consumption per year and for businesses, we use 1,000,000 kWh consumption per year. We do, however, calculate several data points at different levels of consumption for both households and businesses.

Data Collection Methodology

Broadly, the collection of electricity prices depends on whether or not the country has liberalized or regulated power markets. In regulated markets, the government periodically announces new tariff structures. We use these documents to distill the information into the numbers that you see in the data set. The challenge is to have country-specific methodologies that ensure consistency across countries and over time using documents in local languages and changing formats.

In liberalized markets, we take power prices from the current offers of the largest electricity providers, the cost of distribution and transmission from the regulators, and the various applicable taxes and fees from additional research. We give more weight to providers with a larger market share. We also do research to see if the government has adopted any price support mechanisms as the ones that became widespread after the energy price shock in 2022. Here the challenge is to pull information from a variety of sources and to not miss anything.

Hence, for each country - liberalized or regulated - we have a separate methodology with sources and instructions on how to summarize the information. The sources and methodologies evolve over time. The methodology is described in more detail on the about page.

Unfortunately, few countries have electricity price reporting from official sources that is comprehensive, well-documented in terms of methodology, sustained in the same format over time and, most importantly, timely. Although official statistics exist, they often have a significant lag or changing reporting structure. One notable exception is the United Kingdom that check off all those boxes. On that count, it may be useful to read about the differences between our data and official statistics.
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