CO₂ emissions per capita: definition and caveats

What it measures

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from burning fossil fuels and industrial processes. This includes emissions from transport, electricity generation, and heating, but not land-use change. Unit: tonnes per person.

Key points from Our World in Data

• Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is the primary greenhouse gas causing climate change.
• Global CO₂ emissions have stayed just below five tonnes per person for over a decade. But across countries, emissions vary widely, rising in some, falling in others.
• Fossil fuel burning is the main source of CO₂ emissions. This data includes fossil CO₂ emissions from activities such as transport, electricity generation, and heating.
• These figures don't include CO₂ emissions from changes in land use, like deforestation or reforestation.
• Emissions from international aviation and shipping are not included in the data for any individual country or region. They are only counted in the global total.
• This data is based on territorial emissions, meaning the emissions produced within a country's borders, but not those from imported goods. For example, emissions from imported steel are counted in the country where the steel is produced. To learn more and look at emissions adjusted for trade, read our article: How do CO₂ emissions compare when we adjust for trade?
• The data comes from the Global Carbon Budget. Fossil CO₂ emissions are estimated using national statistics on energy use — such as coal, oil, and gas consumption — and industrial production, particularly cement. These figures are converted into CO₂ emissions using standardized emission factors. For more details, read the Global Carbon Budget paper.
• CO₂ emissions per capita are calculated by dividing emissions by population. They represent the average emissions per person in a country or region. To learn more about how different metrics capture the distribution of CO₂ emissions, read our article: Per capita, national, historical: how do countries compare on CO2 metrics?

How Our World in Data processed it

Global emissions are converted from tonnes of carbon to tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) using a factor of 3.664. This is the conversion factor recommended by the Global Carbon Project. It reflects that one tonne of carbon, when fully oxidized, forms 3.664 tonnes of CO₂, based on the relative molecular weights of carbon and oxygen in CO₂.

Emissions from the 1991 Kuwaiti oil fires are included in Kuwait's emissions for that year.- To calculate CO₂ emissions per capita, we divide the original data by a country's estimated population. These estimates come from our population dataset based on multiple sources.

Source and producers · All co₂ emissions per capita figures.