Sovereign rows of the Our World in Data “Coal production by country” series (primary energy equivalent in TWh). Top 30 by most recent year. Aggregates excluded.
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How to use this chart
Play/Pause starts and stops the year-by-year animation, the year slider jumps to any year, and the speed selector (0.5×, 1×, 2×) changes playback speed. Each year shows the top 12 entries out of the 30 held in the dataset.
About this ranking
About this metric. “Coal Production by Country (Time Series)” reformats data published by Our World in Data (mostly re-published World Bank / UN public statistics) (OWID Grapher slug “coal-production-by-country”). Values are expressed in TWh.
What to watch. Rewind to 1900, when the United States and Germany led, and watch coal’s centre of gravity cross from the Atlantic to Asia over a century — today China alone out-produces the next several countries combined, and Western bars shrink slower than China’s grows.
Caveats. Production here is measured in energy terms (TWh), so tonnage comparisons differ where coal quality varies — lignite-heavy producers look smaller than their mined weight would suggest. Early-20th-century figures for some countries are historical reconstructions.
Trends in the data
The first thing to notice about this table is that the United Kingdom is not in it. One of the largest coal producers in the world around 1900 is absent from the list of 30. Because the series selects the top 30 by output in the latest year, a country that has essentially stopped mining does not appear however much it once produced. The 1900 “leader” being the United States at 1,829 TWh therefore does not mean it led the world that year; it means it produced the most among the countries that rank in the top 30 in 2024.
China reached 26,245 TWh in 2024, 52.7% of the 49,820 TWh produced by the 26 reporting countries. China was at 0 in 1900 and still only 322 TWh, in fourth place, in 1941; its rank has gone from 13th to 1st. India grew 125×, from 40 to 5,015 TWh; Indonesia 2,357×, from 2 to 4,714 TWh; and Australia 76×, from 43 to 3,283 TWh. Across 125 years the centre of production has moved wholesale from the North Atlantic to the Asia-Pacific.
Several countries are well past their peak. The United States maxed out at 6,695 TWh in 1998, and its 2,948 TWh in 2024 is 44% of that. Germany fell from 2,014 TWh in 1964 to 229 TWh, just 11% of its peak — also close to a third of its 1900 level of 647 TWh, making Germany the only country here producing less in 2024 than in 1900. Poland dropped from 1,476 TWh in 1987 to 386 TWh, falling from 3rd to 11th.
Coverage varies as well: 23 countries from 1900 through the 1980s, 30 in 2000, and 26 from 2020. Four countries have no 2024 value — North Korea, the Philippines, Mozambique and Bosnia and Herzegovina — most likely because reports have not arrived rather than because production stopped. A line that breaks off at the right-hand edge should not be read as falling to zero.
Trivia quiz
Which energy source powered the 18th-19th century Industrial Revolution?
Coal. It fueled the steam engines that drove factories, railways and ships in the first wave of industrialization. (Source)
What carbon fuel, made by baking coal, is used to smelt iron?
Coke. Produced by heating coal without air, it reduces iron ore in blast furnaces and remains a major source of coal demand. (Source)
When did China's economic reforms that drove its coal boom begin?
1978, with the 'reform and opening up' policy; coal output surged through the high-growth decades that followed. (Source)