Data
CO₂ emissions per capita
GCB
What you should know about this indicator
- Per capita emissions represent the emissions of an average person in a country or region - they are calculated as the total emissions divided by population.
- This data is based on territorial emissions, which do not account for emissions embedded in traded goods.
- Emissions from international aviation and shipping are not included in any country or region's emissions. They are only included in the global total emissions.
CO₂ emissions per capita
GCB
Annual total emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂), excluding land-use change, measured in tonnes per person.
Source
Global Carbon Budget (2024); Population based on various sources (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
November 21, 2024
Next expected update
November 2025
Date range
1750–2023
Unit
tonnes per person
Related research and writing
CO₂ emissions
Per capita, national, historical: how do countries compare on CO2 metrics?
Many countries have decoupled economic growth from CO2 emissions, even if we take offshored production into account
How do CO2 emissions compare when we adjust for trade?
Where in the world do people emit the most CO2?
Explore charts that include this data
Sources and processing
This data is based on the following sources
How we process data at Our World in Data
All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.
At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.
Notes on our processing step for this indicator
- Data on global emissions has been converted from tonnes of carbon to tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) using a conversion factor of 3.664.
- Emissions from the Kuwaiti oil fires in 1991 have been included as part of Kuwait's emissions for that year.
- Country's share of the global population is calculated using our population dataset, based on different sources.
- Each country's share of global CO₂ emissions from flaring has been calculated using global CO₂ emissions from flaring provided in the Global Carbon Budget dataset.
Reuse this work
- All data produced by third-party providers and made available by Our World in Data are subject to the license terms from the original providers. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always cite them appropriately (see below). This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining and updating valuable data.
- All data, visualizations, and code produced by Our World in Data are completely open access under the Creative Commons BY license. You have the permission to use, distribute, and reproduce these in any medium, provided the source and authors are credited.
Citations
How to cite this page
To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:
“Data Page: CO₂ emissions per capita”, part of the following publication: Hannah Ritchie, Pablo Rosado and Max Roser (2023) - “CO₂ and Greenhouse Gas Emissions”. Data adapted from Global Carbon Project, Various sources. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/co2-per-capita-marimekko [online resource]How to cite this data
In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:
Global Carbon Budget (2024); Population based on various sources (2024) – with major processing by Our World in DataFull citation
Global Carbon Budget (2024); Population based on various sources (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “CO₂ emissions per capita – GCB” [dataset]. Global Carbon Project, “Global Carbon Budget”; Various sources, “Population” [original data]. Retrieved April 5, 2025 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/co2-per-capita-marimekko