Global data center power consumption reached almost 800 terawatt hours in 2025, close to double the figure of just over 400 terawatt hours recorded in 2020, according to Statista analysis. The five year path shows a compounding increase rather than a single step change tied to one product cycle.

The United States is the largest single market by a wide margin. Domestic data center electricity demand exceeded 300 terawatt hours in 2025, more than a third of the global total from a country holding a much smaller share of world population and overall electricity consumption.

Forward projections place US data center consumption at 292 terawatt hours in 2026, or about 6.5 percent of total national power demand, based on McKinsey analysis. A share at that level moves data centers from a niche industrial load into a category that appears in state utility resource plans and federal generation forecasts.

The concentration pattern matters as much as the total. Data center electricity use clusters in a small number of states, with northern Virginia, Texas, and Georgia carrying disproportionate load relative to their population. That geographic concentration is what turns a national percentage into local transmission constraints and interconnection queues.

Growth in demand has outpaced growth in generation additions in several regional markets, which is the condition behind the capacity procurement and interconnection reform proposals now moving through grid operators.

Source: Statista - https://www.statista.com/chart/36384/global-data-center-electricity-demand/