Energy use per capita,tonnes of oil

Energy Statistics > Usage per person (most recent) by country

Rank Countries Amount
# 1 United States: 8.35 TOE per person
# 2 Canada: 8.16 TOE per person
# 3 Finland: 6.4 TOE per person
# 4 Belgium: 5.78 TOE per person
# 5 Australia: 5.71 TOE per person
= 6 Sweden: 5.7 TOE per person
= 6 Norway: 5.7 TOE per person
# 8 New Zealand: 4.86 TOE per person
# 9 Netherlands: 4.76 TOE per person
# 10 France: 4.25 TOE per person
= 11 Japan: 4.13 TOE per person
= 11 Germany: 4.13 TOE per person
# 13 United Kingdom: 3.89 TOE per person
# 14 Ireland: 3.86 TOE per person
# 15 Switzerland: 3.7 TOE per person
# 16 Denmark: 3.64 TOE per person
# 17 Austria: 3.52 TOE per person
# 18 Italy: 2.97 TOE per person
Total: 89.51 TOE per person
Weighted average: 5.0 TOE per person

We kind of make pigs of ourselves in comparison to others don't we?

Ponder this though--If you wish to travel within each of those countries from border to border how far do you travel?

Compare that distance to the distance across the U.S. Is there a correlation between our energy consumption and the distance? Remember, we ship many goods from each coast to the interior.

To truck goods from border to border in many of those countries would be like trucking them border to border----in Kansas. Example, Kansas 82,277 square miles, England comes in at 61% of that at 50,356 square miles. In other words many of those countries as the size of states here.

Maybe if we lived elbow to elbow as those in some countries do body heat would suffice to supplement heating whereas in our wide open spaces it takes a tad more.

In our nation of technology we should be PROPERLY insulating homes, working on vehicle fuel consumption more, etc.

I'm not sure whether we should feel proud or ashamed.

Would you rather we were,as the late Paul Harvey used to say,"a bunch of bearded bicyclists with B.O."?

And I wonder if those figures include military usage? If we weren't so busy giving, spending, bullying, protecting, or whatever we do beyond our borders, I bet our usage measured against our population would appear a lot less.

Notice that the most populous countries, China and India don't even make the list. If those two countries used even a tenth as much energy per capita as we do, gasoline would be twenty bucks a gallon.

Interesting. But who gives these figures?

I drive 40+ miles every day. My wife drives 90 miles per day.
If the US government allowed diesel cars here the energy usage would go down. GM sells diesel cars in Europe. A 1.5 liter diesel in a compact car. I would like to have one.....but, Nope.

The US has larger homes, larger cars and trucks and we are more free. Nuff said.
We also have the largest coal reserves in the world. Saudi Arabia has the most oil, we have the most coal.

The Europeans are so far ahead of us in renewable energy production and heating tech, it;s pathetic. Their cars are small and efficient. Some one mentioned the distance we transport goods in the US and he is wright, about that, but it seams that we all think that we need a fresh head of lettuce from Mexico or California, setting in our frig rotting. This country wastes more food than anyother nation also. Why not buy local and in season? When gas and oil gets high again we will reduce our consumption like we did in 08 when crude soured. Ask Dave 2 what he pays for gas and diesel in Germany. If we in the US paid those prices we would do a lot of things differently.It all goes back to the old saying. "Money talks and BS walks".

We use the most energy because were the most
productive country in the world.It requires a lot of energy.We are actually pretty efficient with the energy we use.If you look at what's produced with that energy no other contry comes close.

In all the energy concerns, and polution concerns, that I am subjected to , I never hear anyone addressing airlines dumping fuel out of their tanks, to facilliate a safe landing. I'll bet that it is a lot of gallons!

interesting but whats you point?

That might have been true 30 years ago, but not today. If we are so productive, why is it so hard to find commonly used manufactured products that say Made In America.Tell me how many farm tractors under 100HP are Made in America today.

Not sure where you got those numbers, I've seen different. And the US doesn't have the highest per capita energy consumption in the world either.

In general if you look at a complete list you'll see that there are two main factors that determine energy consumption: availability and economic status. Countries that have a lot of oil, coal, and hydro use a lot of oil, coal, and hydro (duh!). And people in poor countries tend to use less than people in rich countries (duh!).

We also have a lot of govt. officials that own a lot of stock in the oil companies. They don't want consumption to go down. I have a 91 escort that gets better milage than almost anything you can buy today.WHY? When Gasoline hits $5.00 a gal which one of them will start screaming first? When it does, stick a fork in us we're done. I know a bunch of truckers that are about ready to park'em now.The so called recovery will be over.

Agree with you. When you dump the square miles together you'd have to compare US to over half the list.
Another post says we dont produce much anymore. Well we do, about twice of our closest competiter. Most is either made with Robotics, or made and shipped out of country for assembly.

2 cents.

We also have huge amounts of crude oil and natural gas which could sustain this nation, but we tend to waste resources rather than conserve our consumption of them. You are totally correct about restrictions on energy efficient transportation. When the cost of maintaining air quality as opposed to efficiency, sinks into the the pockets of every US citizen it may change national clean air policy. Air quality is important, but we must balance it with financial survival as well. It all boils down to this question. Do we die an economic death and live in poverty or will we die sooner from breathing poorer air. Heck more people will die from cigarett smoke than from exaust from cars and trucks, and that doesn't seam to be a big issue in this country.

One other important point.

Electricity use is broken down like this,
These are rough numbers.

60% of electricity is produced from coal
the rest is Nuclear, hydro electric, natural gas powered plants. I think Hydro electric is less then 10%.
If the regulators and green piece weasels allowed more nuclear power then regular fossil fuel use would go down.
Lots and lots of interesting data on Electricity generation, and usage on the net.

The Rocky Mountain west holds more proven oil reserves than Saudi Arabia and Russia combined.

John Deere makes a few in Agusta Georgia but the real point is that the manufacturing boom of the 50's, 60's and mid 70's was fueled by cheap energy, this allowed the USA to become the most productive and wealthiest nation on earth. We still have it but will not exploit it for political reasons.

They don't use it or make the list because the majority of the people barely make a subsistance living. Vast numbers of Indians have never dreamed of making a dollar per day.

Try labor costs and government regulations.

Within the last two years I've been to India once and China twice. Believe me, every single person in India and China dreams of owning a car. If even one out of hundred succeeds, that's a huge number of autos. Last year, GM sold more cars in China than in the US.

Check out the GNP,the US out produces any country in the world,no one is even close.

If so much of the price of lettuce is for the transport from Mexico and Calif. how come the local farmers market down the road in season charges as much or more for his lettuce with no transport cost?

Combine the GNP of Indoneisa, Japan , N&S Korea, and China, Similar land mass and far more population and what do the numbers look like then?

Kuzz it's "organic" LOL I ask myself that questoin a lot. I have seen the Modern Marvels segment on History Channel on the Specialized "Produce Express" train that crosses our country from Washington State to Schenectday NY., about 45m. from me., and I have seen it several times when driving on Rt5 which is adjacent to the mainline here in the Mohawk Valley of CNY. It's a really neat looking train with all the cars painted identical and a bit unique in design. I can't for the life of me understand how a lettuce seed can be planted and harvested in Cal. delivered to a processing plant, and then to a rail head, then cross the country, be unloaded from rail car, loaded on a truck to be delivered to a retail store here in NY., for the price it is. If you look at the carbon footprint of this head of lettuce, from when it was planted, to be harvested as a seed, to setting on my table, it is astounding, for it's price here. It just doesn't make economic sense to me. How about you? I guess it truly is a Modern Marvel.

What happens when your wallet becomes thin and our resources are depleted, or we can't utilize them because of enviromental issues? Ough, that's not good.

Maybe someday it will change and we will become a third world nation. And not to be nihilistic but maybe it already has.
In the meantime I'm glad Iived in the days when I could hook my trailer up to my 3/4 ton Chevy and haul my tractor the 116 miles up to the lake for the weekend to bush hog. On a carpenter's wages no less.

Because he can. The big grocery chains sort of set the price for goods. We sell at a farmers market and make no apologies for our prices. Our produce is better and way fresher. We also don't have truckloads that we need to move. If someone doesn't want to pay our price, they are welcome to go to wallyworld. It's tough enough making a living without attempting to justify our prices.

Christopher

Agreed.

The US remains the most productive country in the world, though our lead is shrinking.

Dean

Yep we're a wasteful spoiled bunch here in the US and the ironic part is we've borrowed $$$$ from some so called 'lesser economies' to keep it going
but not only do good things come to an end so do bad things.Its going to be a very rough landing back to reality here in the US for a lot of people.

Having dreams of owning a car and realistically expecting to get to that point in the forseeable future are two very different things. India and China can not feed themselves and have no prospect of being able to feed themselves in the near or distant future, agricultural self sufficiency is the most basic measure of a nations wealth, most of the world falls woefully short. There are large numbers of wealthy chinese and Indians but literally staggering numbers of the same who are so dirt poor it defies anything we can imagine, Henry Fords genius was in recognizing that his workers would have to be able to afford the cars they produced, there is not and will not be any such sentiment in Southern Asia. I have worked in India, they have a long row to hoe.

"Their cars are small and efficient", and much less comfortable. My family is in KS, I live in IN, should I pile 5 people in a Mini and travel 11 hours?

"we all think that we need a fresh head of lettuce from Mexico or California", and just how did that happen? We didn't always get produce from CA did we? No. Were they able to grow, ship, and sell (otherwise known as "market") their products better than their competition? Yes. A natural market force took place, people made a conscience choice. You may not agree with it, and I may not either, but then would you dictate to them from where they must purchase their food?

"Why not buy local and in season?", a lot of people do. We have more and more produce stands every year. Not too many in February though.

"When gas and oil gets high again we will reduce our consumption like we did in 08?" Yes, some will. Yours is a strong argument for re-establishing our domestic oil producing compacity. Then again, why not use everyone else's and have ours here in case we need it? Natural market forces and technical advances will bring new modes of power and transit in the future. Did the government mandate that Mr. Ford start utilizing assembly line techniques, or was that his idea? Did the Wright brothers receive a government grant to create the first airplane? No, they did that all on their own.

You sound like you want someone, and that someone would have to be the government, to tell us what we should eat from where, what we should drive, and how much energy we're allowed to use from an approved source?

Markets will not tolerate unreasonably high prices. Me, you, and everyone else can only afford to pay so much for fuel. Then we are forced to buy less of it. Then the demand drops, supply swells, prices drop. Very simple. It will come to a point where the Saudi's aren't selling their oil because we can't afford it. What do they do? Lower production to keep prices high? They can't, the market won't support it. They can't just set the price they want, no more than your local gas station can. Both because we can't afford it, and because someone else will eventually step in and sell it for less. All natural market forces.

The Founders were smarter than you or I will ever be.


"Those who would give up their liberties for security deserve neither and will have none".

People in New York city gave up their right to own guns, one less liberty. Are they now safer? No. They gave up a Constitutionally guaranteed right for what they thought would be improved security. Did they get either?

Just as you would say we all have to drive smaller cars. One less liberty, one less freedom of choice. Are those cars better? Are they safer? No, and no. You are willing to voluntarally give up your right to choose what vehicle is right for you, and in return you gain nothing, except for less liberty. But then I guess you believe you're saving the planet?

It is marvelous, isn't it? That technical advancesments over the years have allowed us the wonderful bounty that our great country produces.

But then I supposed you would rather the train companies fire many of their workers, trucking comapanies lay-off their drivers, and all the support people of those industries, so that we all will be forced to buy local produce. Good idea, Stalin. We'll get back to you on that.

You've stated that you "don't understand" this and that about how our economy does what it does. Why don't you take a course in economics at your local college. Might give you a different perspective.

Please list your sources for how our air is getting dirtier.

Here's Pittsburgh, PA, in the daytime, 1948.

I don't think Saudi has more oil than we do, but I don't know. I do know that there has been a lot of talk about how they, and most middle east countries, over-estimate their reserves for many reasons.

The area in western North Dakota is being shown to have more and more oil/gas than previously thought. There is a real boom going on there right now.
North Dakota Boom