Countries by Access to clean fuels and technologies for cooking, rural (% of rural population)

Sixty-one countries, including Australia, Germany, Japan, and the United States, achieve 100% rural access to clean fuels and technologies for cooking as of 2023. At the opposite end, Central African Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and South Sudan all register 0%. The 100-percentage-point gap between these groups reflects the full range of rural energy conditions captured across 189 countries.

Energy category

Ranking 2023

Values shown in %.

Countries by Access to clean fuels and technologies for cooking, rural (% of rural population)
Rank	Country	%
1	Andorra	100.00
1	Antigua and Barbuda	100.00
1	Australia	100.00
1	Austria	100.00
1	Bahamas	100.00
1	Bahrain	100.00
1	Barbados	100.00
1	Belgium	100.00
1	Brunei	100.00
1	Canada	100.00
1	Chile	100.00
1	Croatia	100.00
1	Cyprus	100.00
1	Czechia	100.00
1	Denmark	100.00
1	Estonia	100.00
1	Finland	100.00
1	France	100.00
1	Germany	100.00
1	Greece	100.00
1	Guyana	100.00
1	Hungary	100.00
1	Iceland	100.00
1	Ireland	100.00
1	Israel	100.00
1	Italy	100.00
1	Japan	100.00
1	South Korea	100.00
1	Kuwait	100.00
1	Latvia	100.00
1	Lithuania	100.00
1	Luxembourg	100.00
1	Malta	100.00
1	Monaco	100.00
1	Nauru	100.00
1	Netherlands	100.00
1	New Zealand	100.00
1	Norway	100.00
1	Oman	100.00
1	Palau	100.00
1	Panama	100.00
1	Poland	100.00
1	Portugal	100.00
1	Qatar	100.00
1	Romania	100.00
1	Russia	100.00
1	San Marino	100.00
1	Saudi Arabia	100.00
1	Seychelles	100.00
1	Singapore	100.00
1	Slovakia	100.00
1	Slovenia	100.00
1	Spain	100.00
1	Saint Kitts and Nevis	100.00
1	Sweden	100.00
1	Switzerland	100.00
1	Trinidad and Tobago	100.00
1	United Arab Emirates	100.00
1	United Kingdom	100.00
1	United States	100.00
1	Uruguay	100.00
62	Egypt	99.90
62	Turkmenistan	99.90
64	Maldives	99.80
64	Tunisia	99.80
66	Belarus	99.40
66	Iraq	99.40
68	Algeria	99.10
68	Jordan	99.10
68	Mauritius	99.10
71	Vietnam	98.70
72	Moldova	98.30
73	Argentina	98.20
74	Azerbaijan	97.80
74	Morocco	97.80
76	Armenia	97.35
77	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	94.00
78	Iran	93.30
79	Suriname	92.90
80	Saint Lucia	91.30
81	Cuba	90.90
81	Kazakhstan	90.90
83	Costa Rica	90.30
84	Jamaica	89.70
85	Syria	89.00
86	Tonga	88.70
87	El Salvador	87.70
88	Ukraine	87.60
89	Bhutan	87.50
90	Georgia	87.10
91	Ecuador	86.50
92	Grenada	84.30
93	Türkiye	84.20
94	Indonesia	84.10
95	Tajikistan	83.80
95	Venezuela	83.80
97	Brazil	83.40
98	Thailand	81.10
99	Dominican Republic	79.60
100	Dominica	79.20
101	Malaysia	77.90
102	China	77.40
103	Belize	74.10
104	Albania	72.50
105	Bolivia	71.20
106	Kyrgyzstan	70.90
106	Serbia	70.90
106	Uzbekistan	70.90
109	South Africa	70.40
110	Peru	69.10
111	India	65.70
112	Sudan	63.80
113	Colombia	63.60
114	North Macedonia	61.80
115	Mexico	60.30
116	Cabo Verde	58.00
117	Gabon	51.15
118	Cambodia	49.30
119	Paraguay	44.40
120	Montenegro	44.00
121	Tuvalu	43.70
122	Philippines	39.90
123	Myanmar	38.40
124	Lesotho	34.50
125	Samoa	33.20
126	Pakistan	33.10
127	Eswatini	31.00
128	Fiji	29.90
129	Botswana	26.40
130	Sri Lanka	26.20
131	Nepal	25.70
132	Honduras	25.00
133	Yemen	24.90
134	Afghanistan	20.40
135	Mauritania	20.30
136	Mongolia	19.00
137	Guatemala	17.30
138	Ghana	14.10
139	Namibia	13.50
140	Kenya	11.40
141	Bosnia and Herzegovina	10.95
142	Bangladesh	10.80
143	Nicaragua	10.40
144	Nigeria	9.70
145	Vanuatu	9.00
146	Senegal	8.80
147	Angola	8.40
148	Côte d'Ivoire	7.60
149	Zimbabwe	7.50
150	Timor-Leste	7.40
151	Comoros	5.90
152	Papua New Guinea	5.80
153	Cameroon	5.40
154	Republic of Congo	4.90
155	Burkina Faso	3.50
156	Laos	2.90
157	Equatorial Guinea	2.70
158	Tanzania	2.50
159	Zambia	2.30
160	Kiribati	2.20
161	Benin	2.10
162	Haiti	1.40
163	Mozambique	1.30
164	Sao Tome and Principe	1.10
164	Togo	1.10
166	Eritrea	1.00
166	Rwanda	1.00
168	Solomon Islands	0.90
169	DR Congo	0.80
169	North Korea	0.80
169	Uganda	0.80
172	Madagascar	0.50
172	Malawi	0.50
172	Mali	0.50
172	Marshall Islands	0.50
172	Niger	0.50
172	Somalia	0.50
178	Ethiopia	0.30
179	Micronesia	0.20
180	Burundi	0.10
180	Chad	0.10
180	Djibouti	0.10
180	Gambia	0.10
180	Guinea	0.10
185	Central African Republic	0.00
185	Guinea-Bissau	0.00
185	Liberia	0.00
185	Sierra Leone	0.00
185	South Sudan	0.00

Analysis

This metric measures the proportion of rural populations primarily using clean cooking fuels and technologies. The World Bank defines it as follows: 'Access to clean fuels and technologies for cooking, rural is the proportion of rural population primarily using clean cooking fuels and technologies for cooking. Under WHO guidelines, kerosene is excluded from clean cooking fuels.' Values are expressed as a percentage of the rural population, and higher values indicate broader access. The 2023 dataset covers 189 countries, all with data from within the last seven years, and 100% of datapoints are classified as official-quality. No extreme outliers were identified using a 3-standard-deviation threshold, and average year-over-year change stands at 3.8%, indicating stable data. The full range runs from 0% to 100%, a spread of 999%.

Sixty-one countries rank jointly at position 1 with a score of 100%, spanning Western Europe, North America, the Gulf states, parts of East Asia, and several Caribbean and Pacific nations. These include high-income economies such as Norway, Switzerland, and Singapore alongside upper-middle-income countries such as Romania and Russian Federation. Immediately below, Egypt (rank 62, 99.9%), Turkmenistan (rank 62, 99.9%), and Maldives (rank 64, 99.8%) follow closely. Viet Nam ranks 71st at 98.7%, and China ranks 102nd at 77.4%, reflecting variation even within countries commonly grouped together by development status.

The middle of the ranking shows wide variation. India ranks 111th at 65.7%, while its neighbor Bangladesh ranks 142nd at just 10.8%. Sudan ranks 112th at 63.8%, higher than Nigeria at rank 144 with 9.7%. Bolivia (rank 105, 71.2%) ranks above both Colombia (rank 113, 63.6%) and Honduras (rank 132, 25%), illustrating that regional proximity does not produce similar outcomes. Bosnia and Herzegovina ranks 141st at 10.95%, placing it among sub-Saharan African nations rather than with its European neighbors. At the bottom, countries including Chad (rank 180, 0.1%), Burundi (rank 180, 0.1%), and Ethiopia (rank 178, 0.3%) have near-zero rural access.

This metric captures only primary cooking fuel use and does not reflect secondary fuel use, stove efficiency, or actual emissions exposure within households. The exclusion of kerosene, per WHO guidelines, means countries where kerosene is widely used as a transitional fuel will score lower than reported energy access rates might otherwise suggest. The data relies on household surveys and modeled estimates, which may not fully capture informal or seasonal fuel switching in rural areas. Countries with very small rural populations may report extreme values that do not reflect broader energy access trends. The 0% values for five countries and 100% for sixty-one should be interpreted with the understanding that these may include rounded or modeled figures.

Methodology

Data are drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code EG.CFT.ACCS.RU.ZS, for the reference year 2023. The metric is defined verbatim as: 'Access to clean fuels and technologies for cooking, rural is the proportion of rural population primarily using clean cooking fuels and technologies for cooking. Under WHO guidelines, kerosene is excluded from clean cooking fuels.' The unit is percentage of rural population. The dataset covers 189 countries, all meeting the recency threshold of data within the last seven years, with 100% official-quality data points. No extreme outliers were detected at the 3-standard-deviation level. The average year-over-year change is 3.8%, indicating low volatility. The value range is 0% to 100%. Rankings with tied values share the same rank position, resulting in large joint-rank groups at the top of the distribution.

Sources

World Bank