Data centers worldwide consumed almost 800 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2025, nearly double the just over 400 terawatt-hours recorded in 2020, according to a Statista chart based on S&P Global Energy data cited in the Energy Institute's Statistical Review of World Energy 2026.

The United States is the largest market by a wide margin. US data center electricity demand exceeded 300 terawatt-hours in 2025, up from roughly 170 terawatt-hours in 2020 as read from the chart. China ranks second, and its demand has also grown strongly in recent years. Europe and other regions show steadier increases from much lower levels.

The chart breaks demand into seven groups: the US, other North America, China, other Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and South and Central America. Each bar from 2020 through 2025 is taller than the one before it, and the US segment is the single largest block in every year shown.

Statista notes that global consumption in 2025 exceeded the annual electricity use of Germany, the world's third-largest economy. The chart's accompanying analysis says demand is projected to double again by 2030, to more than 1,500 terawatt-hours. That figure is comparable to total US residential electricity use in 2025.

The data points to the scale of the grid load that US utilities and regulators are now planning around. US demand alone accounts for roughly 40 percent of the 2025 global total on the chart, which is consistent with the concentration of large campuses in states such as Virginia, Texas and Georgia.

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