Joseph HeinrichSoftware engineer
← All Side Quests
Sep 7, 2026Data

The Long Wire

See where people have electricity and how that has changed.

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How to use this project

Help

How to explore

Pick a country or territory and compare its rural and urban electricity access.

  1. Choose a place

    Select a row or dot to open its history.

  2. Try another year

    Move the year slider to see an earlier comparison.

  3. Change the list

    Choose a region or a different way to sort the results.

Rural and urban
Rural means areas outside towns and cities. Urban means towns and cities.
Access
The estimated percentage of people with electricity.
Gap
The urban percentage minus the rural percentage. For example, 90% minus 70% is a 20-point gap.
Flagged data
A result set aside for review because rural access is more than two points higher than urban access.
Side Quest / DataChoose a row or dot to see how access changed over time.

Electricity around the world

Who has
electricity?

See where people have electricity and how that has changed.

Rural estimate Urban estimate! Data to review
Places with data210Countries and territories with both figures
Below 99.5% access82At least one figure below this level; flagged data left out
Typical access gap24.7 pointsMiddle gap among places below 99.5%
Large gaps46Urban access at least 20 points higher
Step 1 · Choose a place

Compare places

Leaves out almost full access and flagged data

Choose a row to see how access changed over time. Squares show the rural percentage; circles show the urban percentage.

Up to 14 results. Numbers show the urban percentage minus the rural percentage: 90% minus 70% is a 20-point gap.

Step 2 · Compare the dots

Where do cities have more access?

82 countries and territories

Each dot is a country or territory. Right means a higher rural percentage; up means a larger urban lead. Choose a dot to see its history and region. The color matches the edge beside its region name.

Rural electricity access plotted against the urban-rural access gapAfghanistan · Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan — select recordAngola · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordArgentina · Latin America & Caribbean — select recordBenin · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordBolivia · Latin America & Caribbean — select recordBotswana · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordBrazil · Latin America & Caribbean — select recordBurkina Faso · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordBurundi · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordCabo Verde · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordCambodia · East Asia & Pacific — select recordCameroon · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordCentral African Republic · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordChile · Latin America & Caribbean — select recordColombia · Latin America & Caribbean — select recordComoros · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordCongo, Dem. Rep. · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordCongo, Rep. · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordCosta Rica · Latin America & Caribbean — select recordCote d'Ivoire · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordDjibouti · Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan — select recordDominican Republic · Latin America & Caribbean — select recordEcuador · Latin America & Caribbean — select recordEl Salvador · Latin America & Caribbean — select recordEquatorial Guinea · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordEritrea · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordEswatini · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordEthiopia · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordFiji · East Asia & Pacific — select recordGabon · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordGambia, The · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordGhana · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordGuatemala · Latin America & Caribbean — select recordGuinea · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordGuinea-Bissau · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordGuyana · Latin America & Caribbean — select recordHaiti · Latin America & Caribbean — select recordHonduras · Latin America & Caribbean — select recordJamaica · Latin America & Caribbean — select recordKenya · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordLao PDR · East Asia & Pacific — select recordLesotho · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordLiberia · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordMadagascar · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordMalawi · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordMali · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordMarshall Islands · East Asia & Pacific — select recordMexico · Latin America & Caribbean — select recordMicronesia, Fed. Sts. · East Asia & Pacific — select recordMongolia · East Asia & Pacific — select recordMozambique · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordMyanmar · East Asia & Pacific — select recordNamibia · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordNepal · South Asia — select recordNicaragua · Latin America & Caribbean — select recordNiger · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordNigeria · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordPakistan · Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan — select recordPanama · Latin America & Caribbean — select recordPapua New Guinea · East Asia & Pacific — select recordPeru · Latin America & Caribbean — select recordPhilippines · East Asia & Pacific — select recordRwanda · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordSao Tome and Principe · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordSenegal · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordSierra Leone · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordSolomon Islands · East Asia & Pacific — select recordSomalia, Fed. Rep. · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordSouth Africa · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordSouth Sudan · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordSudan · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordSuriname · Latin America & Caribbean — select recordSyrian Arab Republic · Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan — select recordTanzania · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordTimor-Leste · East Asia & Pacific — select recordTogo · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordUganda · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordUruguay · Latin America & Caribbean — select recordVanuatu · East Asia & Pacific — select recordYemen, Rep. · Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan — select recordZambia · Sub-Saharan Africa — select recordZimbabwe · Sub-Saharan Africa — select record
Dot size does not show population. Flagged data is left out. Gaps above 90 points sit at the top edge; choose a dot for its value.
Step 3 · See what changed

Cambodia

KHM · East Asia & Pacific

Higher lines mean a larger percentage has access. The marker shows your chosen year. Changing the region keeps this place selected.

2024 rural98.6%
2024 urban100%
2024 urban–rural gap1.4 points
Cambodia electricity access history2000 urban: 60.6%2000 rural: 6.6%2001 urban: 65.3%2002 urban: 67.2%2002 rural: 0.6%2003 urban: 69.2%2003 rural: 7.6%2004 urban: 71.1%2004 rural: 0.8%2005 urban: 66.8%2005 rural: 9.5%2006 urban: 75.1%2006 rural: 16.1%2007 urban: 77.1%2007 rural: 6.5%2008 urban: 87%2008 rural: 11.7%2009 urban: 81.2%2009 rural: 11.8%2010 urban: 91.3%2010 rural: 15.8%2011 urban: 93.5%2011 rural: 22.8%2012 urban: 94.2%2012 rural: 28.5%2013 urban: 94.8%2013 rural: 38.9%2014 urban: 96.9%2014 rural: 44.7%2015 urban: 95.8%2015 rural: 53.3%2016 urban: 96.3%2016 rural: 60.7%2017 urban: 99.1%2017 rural: 86.1%2018 urban: 99.4%2018 rural: 75%2019 urban: 96.9%2019 rural: 80%2020 urban: 97.3%2020 rural: 82.9%2021 urban: 98.9%2021 rural: 77.1%2022 urban: 99%2022 rural: 88%2023 urban: 99.5%2023 rural: 93.4%2024 urban: 100%2024 rural: 98.6%
Squares are rural; circles are urban. A break in a line means a missing year.

First rural figure6.6% in 2000

Latest data: rural / urban98.6% / 100% in 2024

Missing rural years1 of 25

World Bank estimates from 2000–2024. These figures show access, not how reliable the power is.

Why this exists

The question

How does electricity access differ between cities and the countryside?

What to try

Choose a row or dot to see how access changed over time.

Method and limits

About the data

I saved World Bank rural and urban electricity-access series for 217 countries and territories on September 8, 2026. The data covers 2000–2024 and uses World Bank regions. Values are stored to one decimal place. Missing values stay blank. A gap is urban access minus rural access, in percentage points.

Each yearly comparison requires both estimates. Records with rural access more than two points above urban access are flagged and excluded from the regular rankings, dot chart, and last three summary figures. A flag asks for review; it does not prove the source is wrong. “Check the data” includes these records, but still requires both estimates for the selected year. It ranks records by ten times the rural lead, plus the number of years missing either estimate.

The last three summary figures also exclude countries and territories where both estimates reach 99.5%. The median is the middle gap after sorting this group. For that calculation only, rural leads of up to two points count as zero. Each country or territory counts equally, regardless of population. The checkbox and ranking controls do not change these summaries.

The rural-increase ranking subtracts each place’s first available rural value from its value in the selected year. Starting years can differ. The annual series may include reported, modeled, and revised values, so these comparisons cannot explain the causes of change.

Skills used

  • Data analysis
  • Statistical reasoning
  • Visualization
  • Information design
  • Interaction design
  • Editorial storytelling
  • Accessibility
  • Performance

What the data shows

  1. In Cambodia, rural access rose from 6.6% in 2000 to 98.6% in 2024. Urban access rose from 60.6% to 100%. The gap narrowed, but these figures do not explain why.
  2. The 2024 comparison keeps 82 countries and territories after its exclusions. Their middle gap was 24.7 percentage points; 46 had a gap of at least 20 points.
  3. Chad’s 2024 figures show 100% rural access and 51% urban access. This unusual result is kept for review.

Sources

World Bank — World Development Indicators · Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)Access to electricity, rural (% of rural population) ↗World Bank — World Development Indicators · Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)Access to electricity, urban (% of urban population) ↗