The population problem isn't just a matter of the number of people. People consume food, fresh water, wood, minerals, and energy as we go about our daily lives. And producing food, pumping groundwater, harvesting wood, mining minerals, and burning fuel all deplete our resource base and produce pollution.
One critical indicator of resource use and environmental impact is to measure our energy consumption. When you click on one of the countries in the graph below, you'll see how that country compares to the United States in the size of its population, the amount of energy it consumes as a country, and the amount of energy consumed per person.
Why single out the U.S.A.?
Why are we focusing on the United States? Because Americans make up less than 5% of the world's population and yet consume nearly 20% of the world's energy. The average American's energy consumption is much higher than most people on the planet!
What's the Point?
The point is that the population problem isn't just something "over there" in "those poor countries," where they may be having more children. A family in India would have to have more than 10 children to match the energy consumption of an American family with just one child!
From a consumption perspective, the richer countries have a bigger population problem than the poorer countries!
Population and Energy Consumption by Country
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Country: click to compare to USA |
 Population Energy consumptionHover over bar for actual data |
Percent of global total
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| China |
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| India |
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| USA |
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| Indonesia |
 
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| Brazil |
 
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| Pakistan |
 
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| Bangladesh |
 
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| Russian Federation |
 
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| Japan |
 
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| Mexico |
 
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| Philippines |
 
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| Germany |
 
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| Egypt |
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| Turkey |
 
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| Iran |
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| France |
 
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| Thailand |
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| United Kingdom |
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| Italy |
 
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| South Africa |
 
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Percent of global total |
Population data source: Population Reference Bureau; 2016 World Population Data Sheet.
Energy consumption data source: U.S. Energy Information Administration 2016.