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UK power generation per person down a third since 2003

Original title: Electricity generation per person in the United Kingdom has fallen by a third from its early-2000s peak · Our World in Data · 3 Oct 2026

UK power generation per person down a third since 2003

Chart: Our World in Data, CC BY 4.0

So what

Britain now generates per head what it did in the late 1960s, as efficiency gains, imports and a shrinking industrial base hollowed out demand. For utilities and grid investors, two decades of flat-to-falling volumes are about to reverse as heat pumps, EVs and data centres arrive. The question for boards is whether networks and generation sized for decline can be rebuilt fast enough for growth.

LabelValueUnitPeriod
UK total electricity generation3.89TWh1920
UK total electricity generation73.491TWh1950
UK total electricity generation146.1TWh1960
UK total electricity generation238.781TWh1968
UK total electricity generation256.342TWh1970
UK total electricity generation277.676TWh1980
UK total electricity generation319.75TWh1990
UK total electricity generation377.06TWh2000
UK total electricity generation398.21TWh2003
UK total electricity generation398.35TWh2005
UK total electricity generation382.06TWh2010
UK total electricity generation338.87TWh2015
UK total electricity generation310.3TWh2020
UK total electricity generation324.58TWh2022
UK total electricity generation292.53TWh2023
UK total electricity generation284.16TWh2024
UK total electricity generation292.31TWh2025
UK net imports as share of demand1%2010
UK net imports as share of demand9%2025
Decline in UK generation per person since 2003 peakmore than one-third—2003-2025