United States CO2 emissions per capita, 1970 to 2024
United States CO2 emissions per capita stood at 14 in 2024, down 0.7% on the previous period.
The United States emitted 13.6 tonnes of carbon dioxide per person in 2024, against 13.7 the year before. The window's extremes are 23.1 tonnes in 1973 and 13.5 in 2020.
How it is measured
The figures come from the World Bank's World Development Indicators (indicator EN.GHG.CO2.PC.CE.AR5), compiled from the EDGAR emissions database. The count covers carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion and industrial processes such as cement, excludes land use and forestry, and is divided by midyear population. Emissions are attributed to the country where they physically occur, so goods manufactured for export count against the producer, not the consumer.
What the curve shows
Per-person terms are the fairness lens of climate accounting: totals track population size as much as behavior, while this measure asks what each person's economy emits. The United States's trajectory from 22.4 tonnes in 1970 to 13.6 in 2024 has already bent below its 1973 peak of 23.1, and where the peak sits in time says a lot about an economy: early peaks usually mean deindustrialization and efficiency, late ones mean industrialization still under way.
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