Off-grid electricity includes stand-alone systems, mini-grids and other decentralized renewable energy (DRE) pathways. The statistics below distinguish basic access from reliability, identify measurement periods and geographies, and separate observed estimates, surveys and modeled scenarios.
Key Off-Grid Electricity Statistics
These highlights summarize the most useful figures across global access, technology, regional trends and country studies:
- Global electricity access reached 92% of the world population in 2023, although the basic-access measure does not mean reliable or sufficient supply.
- 666 million people remained without electricity worldwide in 2023, 19 million fewer than in 2022 in the Tracking SDG7 estimate.
- About 80% of people without electricity lived in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2023, according to the IEA estimate.
- 84% of people without electricity lived in rural communities worldwide in 2023, using the Tracking SDG7 rural classification.
- DRE technologies benefited more than 561 million people worldwide in 2023, a category broader than stand-alone household electricity.
- An estimated 490 million people were served by stand-alone off-grid solar solutions worldwide in 2022, including solar lights and solar home systems.
- An estimated 47 million people were served by mini-grids worldwide in 2022, across systems using different generation technologies.
- DRE supplied 55% of new electricity connections in Sub-Saharan Africa from 2020 to 2022, according to Tracking SDG7.
- Access in developing Asia reached 97% of the population in 2023, up from 79% in 2010.
- The IEA projects 645 million people will remain without electricity worldwide in 2030 under its Stated Policies Scenario, including about 545 million in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Mini-grids are modeled to provide 30% of initial access gains by 2030 in the IEA Net Zero Emissions scenario, while stand-alone systems provide 25%.
- Off-grid solar is projected to be the most cost-effective solution for 41% of people without electricity by 2030, a least-cost suitability projection rather than guaranteed adoption.
- The World Bank estimates $95 billion in funding is needed by 2030 to expand decentralized renewable solutions worldwide, not committed expenditure.
- About 57% of surveyed Afghan households used solar home systems as their primary electricity source, while the study sample had 67.8% using off-grid electricity overall.
- Sierra Leone’s nationwide off-grid access rate was 14.7% of households, while 64.1% had no electricity access in the cited survey.
- The Sahel must connect 8.5 million people annually during the 2020s to reach universal access by 2030 in the IEA Africa Case, a modeled requirement.
Contents
- Global off-grid electricity access and the remaining gap
- Off-grid solar adoption and household electricity use
- Mini-grid and stand-alone systems for new connections
- Regional off-grid electricity trends in Africa and Asia
- Afghanistan and Sierra Leone off-grid electricity case studies
- Off-grid electricity investment, quality and 2030 outlook
Global Off-Grid Electricity Access and the Remaining Gap
The global access measure is a starting point, not a complete description of off-grid service. Tracking SDG7 reported 92% global electricity access in 2023, while the IEA reported a different estimate of 750 million people without access for the same year because the series use different methods.
| Measure | Period and geography | Reported result |
|---|---|---|
| Global access | 2023, world | 92% of the population |
| People without access | 2023, world | 666 million in Tracking SDG7; 750 million in the IEA estimate |
| Rural share of the gap | 2023, world | 84% |
| Sub-Saharan African share | 2023, world gap | 85% in Tracking SDG7; about 80% in the IEA estimate |
The Tracking SDG 7 – The Energy Progress Report 2025 says the 666-million estimate was 19 million lower than in 2022. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the estimate was 565 million people without electricity in 2023, down from 570 million in 2022, including 451 million rural residents.
The rural classification is not equivalent to every off-grid household, and the regional net change reflects both new connections and population growth. The IEA access report uses an administrative-data estimate, while Tracking SDG7 uses a different compiled or survey-based series.
DRE technologies benefited more than 561 million people worldwide in 2023, but DRE is broader than stand-alone household electricity. It can include decentralized renewable systems serving households, community facilities and productive uses.
Off-Grid Solar Adoption and Household Electricity Use
Off-grid solar statistics cover several different products and denominators. A 2017 World Bank article estimated that off-grid solar products had reached more than 360 million people, equal to 17% of estimated global market potential at that time.
The same article placed more than 1 billion people in an older context of lacking electricity access and another 1 billion living with unreliable or insufficient service. Those historical figures should not be merged with the 2023 SDG7 series.
The World Bank article, “Off-grid bringing power to millions” also reported that solar home systems had helped provide electricity to more than 20 million people in rural Bangladesh, while Lighting Africa had helped more than 23 million people in Africa meet basic electricity needs. These are program or article-era reach figures, not current annual adoption rates.
The Afghanistan household study illustrates how primary and secondary sources can differ within one country sample:
- In the surveyed Afghanistan households, 57% used solar home systems as their primary electricity source, while 7.6% used solar lighting systems as their primary source.
- In the same sample, 67.8% used off-grid electricity as their primary source and 32.2% used grid electricity.
- About 14% of interviewed Afghan households used an off-grid solution as a secondary source.
- Among Afghan households with a solar device, 89.1% owned a solar home system; the denominator is solar-device households, not all households.
- About 88% of Afghan off-grid solar households reported no secondary electricity source.
- In grid-electrified Afghan provinces, 75% of off-grid solar households used solar as their only electricity source.
The Afghanistan Household Energy Diaries reports these survey findings for its study population. They should not be presented as national adoption rates without the report’s sampling assumptions.
Mini-Grid and Stand-Alone Systems for New Connections
Stand-alone solar and mini-grids are distinct access pathways, and neither category is synonymous with portable power stations. Tracking SDG7 estimated 490 million people served by stand-alone off-grid solar solutions in 2022 and 47 million served by mini-grids worldwide.
| Technology or pathway | Period or scenario | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Stand-alone off-grid solar | 2022, world | 490 million people served |
| Mini-grids | 2022, world | 47 million people served |
| Mini-grids powered by fossil fuels | 2022, world | About half of mini-grids |
| Hydropower in mini-grid sources | 2022, world | 20% |
| Solar in mini-grid sources | 2022, world | 13% |
About half of the world’s mini-grids were powered by fossil fuels in 2022, while hydropower accounted for 20% and solar for 13% of mini-grid power sources. These are technology-composition shares, not customer or electricity-output shares, and categories may not sum exactly because of rounding.
From 2020 to 2022, DRE supplied 55% of new electricity connections in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Tracking SDG 7 report notes that DRE includes more than stand-alone household solar.
The IEA’s Net Zero Emissions scenario models mini-grids to provide 30% of initial access gains by 2030 and stand-alone systems to provide 25%. Almost 90% of new connections are renewable-based in that scenario, while the Tracking SDG7 outlook projects off-grid solar to be the least-cost solution for 41% of people without electricity by 2030.
These are modeled pathways, not observed deployment rates. The IEA access report identifies the scenario basis for the mini-grid, stand-alone and renewable-connection shares.
Regional Off-Grid Electricity Trends in Africa and Asia
Developing Asia shows a much higher access level than Sub-Saharan Africa, but the figures describe regional population access rather than off-grid technology adoption. The IEA estimates that developing Asia reached 97% access in 2023, up from 79% in 2010, with almost 1 billion people gaining access since 2010.
The Sahel remains a distinct access challenge. In a 2019 context, solar PV and wind supplied up to 5% of electricity generation across the Sahel and up to 15% in Mauritania; these generation figures are not specifically off-grid.
Under current policies, 80 million Sahel residents would remain without electricity by 2030. In the IEA Africa Case, the region must connect 8.5 million people annually over the decade to reach universal access by 2030.
The IEA Clean Energy Transitions in the Sahel executive summary projects the Sahel population to reach 140 million by 2030, with 40% living in urban areas. In the same Africa Case, electricity demand is projected to grow more than fivefold to above 65 TWh by 2030.
Afghanistan and Sierra Leone Off-Grid Electricity Case Studies
Country diagnostics show why global percentages should not be treated as interchangeable adoption measures. Afghanistan’s survey emphasizes household primary sources, while Sierra Leone’s Multi-Tier Framework diagnostic uses a binary access classification and separate source categories.
In Afghanistan, the study found 44% of urban surveyed households and 21% of rural surveyed households using grid electricity as their primary source. The complementary shares using off-grid electricity were 56% among urban households and 79% among rural households.
Sierra Leone’s diagnostic found 21.1% of households with grid or mini-grid access, comprising 20.5% national-grid and 0.6% mini-grid access. Nationwide off-grid access was 14.7%, while 64.1% of households had no electricity access.
| Sierra Leone household measure | Rural | Urban |
|---|---|---|
| Off-grid access | 17.4% | 11.6% |
| Grid or mini-grid access | 1.3% | 44.7% |
| Solar lantern use | 15.5% | 8.8% |
| Solar lighting system use | 1.0% | 1.8% |
| Electric generator use | 0.4% | 0.6% |
Solar lanterns were the largest reported off-grid source in Sierra Leone in the cited survey. Source categories may not represent exclusive use, and the rural and urban values are sample estimates.
The Sierra Leone: Beyond Connections diagnostic report defines the access categories used here. Its figures should be read as survey results for the report population, not as a universal current estimate.
Off-Grid Electricity Investment, Quality and 2030 Outlook
Access expansion depends on finance as well as hardware. The World Bank estimates $95 billion in funding is needed by 2030 to expand decentralized renewable solutions, while the off-grid solar sector received $1.2 billion in investment during 2022–23.
Historical financing figures have narrower scopes. The World Bank Group had committed $1.3 billion to off-grid programs over the preceding eight years in its cited account, and off-grid-solar investors and entrepreneurs had raised $1 billion over the five years cited by the article.
The World Bank off-grid article presents those earlier figures in their original article-era context. They are not total global energy-access finance and should not be added to the later sector-investment estimate.
The IEA projects 645 million people without electricity in 2030 under the Stated Policies Scenario, including about 545 million in Sub-Saharan Africa. Reaching SDG7.1.1 requires about 135 million new electricity connections each year from 2024 onward.
In the Sahel Africa Case, average energy-sector investment is projected at $3 billion per year through 2030. That requirement covers the power system, not off-grid-only spending, while the demand projection includes grid and off-grid electricity.
These scenarios are forecasts rather than realized outcomes. Basic access, reliability, sufficiency, technology type and household survey status measure different dimensions, so comparisons should retain the source, period, geography and definition attached to each statistic.