Countries by Total greenhouse gas emissions excluding LULUCF per capita (t CO2e/capita)
Palau ranks 1st in greenhouse gas emissions excluding LULUCF per capita, recording 86.68 t CO2e per person — more than 930 times the value of last-ranked Northern Mariana Islands at 0.09 t CO2e per capita. Qatar ranks 2nd at 56.95 t CO2e and Bahrain 3rd at 40.55 t CO2e, all small, fossil-fuel-intensive economies at the top. The scale of this gap reflects the extreme variation in energy use, industrial activity, and population size across 203 countries.
Ranking 2024
Values shown in per capita.
Analysis
This metric measures total annual emissions per capita of the six greenhouse gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol — carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) — from the energy, industry, waste, and agriculture sectors, standardized to carbon dioxide equivalent values divided by the economy's population. Land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF) emissions are excluded. Data comes from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code EN.GHG.ALL.PC.CE.AR5, for the year 2024. Coverage is 203 countries, with 100% of data points from the most recent 7 years and 100% rated as official quality. The viability check identified 39 extreme outliers at the 3-standard-deviation threshold, and the range spans 0.09 to 86.68 t CO2e per capita — a spread of over 93,500%.
The top of the ranking is dominated by small, hydrocarbon-producing or energy-intensive states. Palau leads at rank 1 with 86.68 t CO2e per capita, far ahead of rank 2 Qatar at 56.95 t CO2e and rank 3 Bahrain at 40.55 t CO2e. Kuwait ranks 4th at 35.39 t CO2e and Mongolia ranks 5th at 29.61 t CO2e. Among larger economies, Australia ranks 11th at 21.75 t CO2e, Canada ranks 12th at 18.60 t CO2e, the United States ranks 15th at 17.38 t CO2e, and the Russian Federation ranks 14th at 17.94 t CO2e. China, often noted for total emissions, ranks 29th at 11.03 t CO2e per capita, well below the top-ten Gulf states.
The middle of the ranking shows a dense cluster of European and Latin American economies. Germany ranks 46th at 8.07 t CO2e, the United Kingdom ranks 72nd at 5.59 t CO2e, and France ranks 73rd at 5.52 t CO2e. India, a major total emitter, ranks 123rd at just 3.01 t CO2e per capita. A notable anomaly is Chad at rank 88 with 4.98 t CO2e, placing it above Sweden (rank 89, 4.97 t CO2e) and Switzerland (rank 93, 4.77 t CO2e). At the lower end, sub-Saharan African nations dominate: Congo, Dem. Rep. ranks 196th at 0.54 t CO2e, Rwanda ranks 194th at 0.59 t CO2e, and Burundi ranks 193rd at 0.60 t CO2e.
Several limitations apply to this metric. The LULUCF sector is explicitly excluded, which means countries where deforestation or land-use change is a major emissions source — such as those with large forest cover — may appear lower than their full climate footprint would suggest. Per-capita figures are sensitive to population size, which can inflate values for small-population territories and deflate them for populous nations. Territories and dependent jurisdictions such as Gibraltar (rank 16), New Caledonia (rank 13), and Greenland (rank 25) are included, and their small populations amplify per-capita values. Reporting methodologies may vary across countries, and the 39 extreme outliers flagged in the viability check indicate that some values should be interpreted with caution.
Methodology
Data is sourced from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code EN.GHG.ALL.PC.CE.AR5, for the reference year 2024. The metric covers 203 countries, with 100% of data points rated as official quality and 100% falling within the last 7 years. The definition, per the source note: total annual emissions of the six greenhouse gases (GHG) covered by the Kyoto Protocol (carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6)) from the energy, industry, waste, and agriculture sectors, standardized to carbon dioxide equivalent values divided by the economy's population. This measure excludes GHG from land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF). The unit is tonnes of CO2 equivalent per capita (t CO2e/capita), where a higher value indicates greater per-capita emissions. The viability check identified 39 extreme outliers at the 3-standard-deviation threshold. The data range spans 0.09 to 86.68 t CO2e per capita, a spread of 93,510%. Average year-over-year change is 4.2%, well within the 50% volatility threshold. A higher rank on this metric indicates higher per-capita emissions.