What Is the Price of Electricity Around the World?

Electricity Prices per Country Around the World

We have listed all the countries where the price of electricity was reasonably determinable, excluding Iran, North Korea, or Syria, which do not publish these data.

Which Country Has the Cheapest Electricity Prices in the World?

The countries with the cheapest electricity in the world are Turkmenistan (0.66 cents per kWh), Sudan (0.7 cents per kWh) and Bahrain (0.74 cents per kWh). However, it is better to look for the countries where electricity is the cheapest and where power cuts are rare.

In this case, the top 3 are Bahrain, Qatar and Oman. These are countries where the population is accustomed to almost free energy, and the state subsidises the price of electricity. This is the opposite of Ireland, where taxes account for at least 25% of the kWh price!

In Europe, the countries with the cheapest electricity are Turkey, Ukraine and Georgia.

Electricity Prices Around the World by Continent

This is the simple average of the prices from the countries of the continent, not weighted by population.

We take the average of the national prices of the continents. Continents correspond to the United Nations' definition, so Central America is included in North America. Asia has the cheapest electricity because it includes most of the oil and gas producers (Gulf countries and Central Asia) where electricity is very cheap.

In contrast, Europe, which imports almost all its oil and gas, along with high taxes, has the most expensive electricity, above 20 cents per kWh.

Electricity Prices Around the World and Power Cuts

Among the 10 countries with the cheapest electricity in the world, 9 experience frequent power cuts. Service quality is clearly correlated with the price of the kWh.

In the table below, we see that the price of electricity is 50% higher in countries with good service quality than in countries suffering from frequent power outages.

To classify the countries, we conducted qualitative research to list countries where power outages affect all residential customers at least four times a year. Among the 156 countries analysed, 93 have network stability issues, which is 60%.

It is hard not to see behind this finding a difference between rich countries with deregulated electricity industries where electricity is expensive and reliable, and poor state-owned electricity countries, where electricity is a bit cheaper but the service is unstable.

A point that is striking when studying disparities between countries is the arbitrary setting of electricity prices by the states.

In almost all countries suffering from frequent outages, these are attributed to a lack of supply, due to a price or conditions that prevent the development of new production capacities.