The World Bank’s electricity-access indicator, EG.ELC.ACCS.ZS, estimates the share of a country’s population with access to electricity. It is a population-level access measure—not a count of household connections, a measure of electricity use, or a score for how dependable or affordable power is.
What the percentage means
The World Bank defines the indicator as: “Access to electricity is the percentage of population with access to electricity.” In practical terms, it describes the extent of population access in a country. It does not report how much electricity people consume, how much the country generates, or the number of homes connected to a grid.
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The World Development Indicators (WDI) metadata describes the series as annual and specifies population-weighted average aggregation for regional and other aggregates. The World Bank indicator page displays coverage from 1990 through 2024. That range is the series’ displayed reference-period coverage, not an access rate or a claim that every country has a direct observation for every year.
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The Global Electrification Database is the source identified in the World Bank’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) metadata for SDG 7.1.1, in the context of Tracking SDG 7: The Energy Progress Report. The metadata says information is collected from industry, national surveys, and international sources, with nationally representative household surveys—including censuses—as the main source.
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WDI methodology notes explain that the Global Electrification Database compiles nationally representative household-survey data and, occasionally, census data. It also incorporates related data from SEDLAC, MNAPOV, and ECAPOV, which are based on similar surveys. The SDG metadata names the International Energy Agency, International Renewable Energy Agency, United Nations Statistics Division, World Bank, and World Health Organization as joint custodians of Tracking SDG 7.
A historical WDI metadata description reported 1,375 surveys for 149 countries over 1990–2021. The World Bank presented that count as applying “at the time of this analysis”; it should not be treated as a current survey total. It is also a different period from the 1990–2024 coverage displayed on the indicator page.
Why some country-year values are estimates
The historical series is not simply a row of direct survey results. The SDG metadata says some countries have no underlying data points, and describes using a weighted regional average to estimate values in those cases. For many countries with only one to three observations, missing historical values are estimated using a model with region, country, and time variables.
The same metadata uses “Assumption” to mark an assumed universal-access value for countries classified as developed by the United Nations. When interpreting a country’s trend, check the observation and its accompanying status notes before describing a value as directly observed. An estimated or assumed point can still be useful for a broad historical picture, but its status affects how precisely it can support claims about change.
What the indicator cannot tell you
A high access percentage does not establish that electricity is available around the clock, that outages are rare, or that service is affordable, safe, healthy, or of adequate capacity or quality. Those are distinct dimensions of electricity service, and the population access percentage does not measure them.
The World Bank’s 2021 guide notes that the original binary formulation of SDG 7.1.1 does not capture the full dimensions of electricity access, and that the indicator can remain unchanged while its measurement methodology evolves. For a more detailed picture of household service challenges, the guide describes the Multi-Tier Framework (MTF), which assesses access across multiple dimensions rather than reducing it to a binary access measure.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Binary access and the Multi-Tier Framework
| Measure | What it captures | What it supports |
|---|---|---|
| World Bank population access percentage (EG.ELC.ACCS.ZS) | Share of the population counted as having access to electricity. | A broad population-level view of access; it does not establish reliability, affordability, capacity, or other service-quality dimensions. |
| Multi-Tier Framework (MTF) | Multiple dimensions of household electricity access and service challenges. | A more detailed assessment of household experience than a single binary access percentage. |
Use the access percentage to answer how widespread access is, not whether households receive good service. To compare reliability or other aspects of lived experience, use evidence that measures those dimensions directly, such as an appropriate MTF measure.
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