Good News · Feature
Electricity enables lighting, communication and many everyday work processes. For 2023, the international energy progress report documents a further increase: around 92 per cent of the world's population had basic access to electricity. The number of people without a supply fell. But a connection alone guarantees neither affordable electricity nor a reliable round-the-clock supply.
Progress despite population growth
In 2023, the number of new electricity connections worldwide grew faster than the population. The Tracking SDG 7 report, published in 2025, puts global access at around 92 per cent. The number of people without electricity fell by about 19 million compared with the previous year, to 666 million. This is more than an improvement in the percentage: the absolute gap in provision also narrowed. This distinction is particularly important in rapidly growing regions, because many additional connections can be created without the number of people without a supply falling significantly. The data show a genuine step forward in 2023. However, they describe basic access, not automatically a supply that is equally sufficient for all desired appliances, income-generating activities or public facilities.
Why decentralised solutions are becoming important
Many people without electricity live in remote or economically disadvantaged areas. Extending a large interconnected grid to every settlement there can be difficult and costly. The progress report therefore highlights decentralised renewable solutions, including solar home systems and small local grids. In sub-Saharan Africa, such solutions provided more than half of new electricity connections between 2020 and 2022. This does not mean that a small solar system offers the same possibilities as a high-capacity grid connection. Different forms of supply meet different needs. The practical gain is that households do not always have to wait for large-scale infrastructure to be fully developed. At the same time, maintenance, spare parts, financing and the option of later expansion remain crucial to lasting benefits.
The remaining gap is particularly persistent
Around 85 per cent of people without electricity lived in sub-Saharan Africa in 2023. Although about 35 million people there gained access, population growth meant that the number without a supply fell by only around five million. These figures explain why visible local successes coexist with a continuing large regional gap. In the report's assessment, the worldwide pace is insufficient to achieve universal access by 2030. This is a statement about the development trajectory at the time, not an immutable outcome. Assessing future progress therefore requires several questions to be considered together: who gains access, how reliably does it work and what costs arise? The good news from 2023 is a real reduction in the gap in provision. The more demanding task remains an electricity supply that people can actually use over the long term.
Sources & further reading
- World Bank: Tracking SDG 7 – The Energy Progress Report 2025worldbank.org
- World Bank and partners: Energy Access Has Improvedworldbank.org
Written in our own words with AI assistance, based on the sources listed above. The text distinguishes research findings, technical prototypes and established knowledge. This feature is not a breaking-news report.