Number of people without access to clean fuels for cooking, 2022

Clean cooking fuels and technologies represent non-solid fuels such as natural gas, ethanol or electric technologies.

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Data

Number of people without access to clean fuels for cooking

World Bank
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What you should know about this indicator

Access to clean fuels and technologies for cooking is the proportion of total population primarily using clean cooking fuels and technologies for cooking. Under WHO guidelines, kerosene is excluded from clean cooking fuels.

Statistical concept and methodology: Data for access to clean fuels and technologies for cooking are based on the World Health Organization's (WHO) Global Household Energy Database. They are collected among different sources: only data from nationally representative household surveys (including national censuses) were used. Survey sources include Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and Living Standards Measurement Surveys (LSMS), Multi-Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), the World Health Survey (WHS), other nationally developed and implemented surveys, and various government agencies (for example, ministries of energy and utilities).

Trends in the proportion of the population using each fuel type are estimated using a single multivariate hierarchical model, with urban and rural disaggregation. Estimates for overall "polluting" fuels (unprocessed biomass, charcoal, coal, and kerosene) and "clean" fuels (gaseous fuels, electricity, as well as an aggregation of any other clean fuels like alcohol) are produced by aggregating estimates of relevant fuel types. The model was used to derive clean fuel use estimates for 191 countries (ref. Stoner, O., Shaddick, G., Economou, T., Gumy, S., Lewis, J., Lucio, I., Ruggeri, G. and Adair-Rohani, H. (2020), Global household energy model: a multivariate hierarchical approach to estimating trends in the use of polluting and clean fuels for cooking. J. R. Stat. Soc. C, 69: 815-839). Countries classified by the World Bank as high income (57 countries) in the 2022 fiscal year are assumed to have universal access to clean fuels and technologies for cooking.

Number of people without access to clean fuels for cooking
World Bank
Access to such as natural gas, electricity, and clean cookstoves reduces exposure to indoor air pollutants, a leading cause of death in low-income households.
Source
World Health Organization (via World Bank) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
January 24, 2025
Next expected update
January 2026
Date range
2000–2022
Unit
people

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

The World Development Indicators (WDI) is the primary World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially-recognized international sources. It presents the most current and accurate global development data available, and includes national, regional and global estimates.

Retrieved on
January 24, 2025
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
World Development Indicators (WDI), The World Bank (2025).

The World Development Indicators (WDI) is the primary World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially-recognized international sources. It presents the most current and accurate global development data available, and includes national, regional and global estimates.

Retrieved on
January 24, 2025
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
World Development Indicators (WDI), The World Bank (2025).

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.

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Notes on our processing step for this indicator

We calculated the number of people without access to clean fuels and technologies for cooking by multiplying the fraction of the population without access by the total population.

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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: Number of people without access to clean fuels for cooking”, part of the following publication: Hannah Ritchie, Pablo Rosado, and Max Roser (2019) - “Access to Energy”. Data adapted from World Bank and International Energy Agency, United Nations Population Division, Eurostat, and National Statistical Offices. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/number-without-clean-cooking-fuel [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:

World Health Organization (via World Bank) – with major processing by Our World in Data

Full citation

World Health Organization (via World Bank) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “Number of people without access to clean fuels for cooking – World Bank” [dataset]. World Bank and International Energy Agency, “World Development Indicators”; United Nations Population Division, Eurostat, and National Statistical Offices, “World Development Indicators” [original data]. Retrieved April 25, 2025 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/number-without-clean-cooking-fuel