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Share of world consumption carbon dioxide by income group (SEI)

The share of the world's consumption-based carbon dioxide emissions caused by the richest 10%, the richest 1% and the poorest 50% of people, ranked by income across the world, each year from 1990 to 2022. Consumption emissions count what a country's people buy, including imports, and exclude what it makes for export. The split between people depends on the Stockholm Environment Institute's assumptions about how emissions rise with income. These are shares of the world total, not tonnes per person. SEI also serves 2023, but builds it on territorial national emissions (where emissions happen) instead of consumption, so 2023 is not comparable and is not shown.

Latest value

49.0%

World: everyone in the world, ranked by income per person (2021 US dollars at purchasing power parity), 2022. Version 1990-2022 consumption-based years of the 1990-2023 historical series, retrieved 2026-10-04.

Share of world consumption carbon dioxide by income group (SEI) (percent of world consumption carbon dioxide emissions)

99 values from 1990 to 2022. Lines: Richest 10%, Richest 1%, Poorest 50%.
Show as a table
Share of world consumption carbon dioxide by income group (SEI), every value
PeriodIncome groupValue (%)Status
1990Richest 10%51.5final
1991Richest 10%51.5final
1992Richest 10%52.5final
1993Richest 10%52.2final
1994Richest 10%53.1final
1995Richest 10%53.0final
1996Richest 10%53.3final
1997Richest 10%53.4final
1998Richest 10%54.4final
1999Richest 10%54.2final
2000Richest 10%55.4final
2001Richest 10%54.8final
2002Richest 10%54.8final
2003Richest 10%54.8final
2004Richest 10%54.9final
2005Richest 10%54.6final
2006Richest 10%54.2final
2007Richest 10%53.8final
2008Richest 10%53.0final
2009Richest 10%51.0final
2010Richest 10%51.0final
2011Richest 10%50.1final
2012Richest 10%49.4final
2013Richest 10%49.8final
2014Richest 10%49.2final
2015Richest 10%49.5final
2016Richest 10%49.4final
2017Richest 10%49.2final
2018Richest 10%49.6final
2019Richest 10%48.8final
2020Richest 10%48.5final
2021Richest 10%48.8final
2022Richest 10%49.0final
1990Richest 1%14.5final
1991Richest 1%14.6final
1992Richest 1%15.2final
1993Richest 1%15.2final
1994Richest 1%15.6final
1995Richest 1%15.8final
1996Richest 1%16.2final
1997Richest 1%16.4final
1998Richest 1%17.0final
1999Richest 1%17.0final
2000Richest 1%17.9final
2001Richest 1%17.6final
2002Richest 1%17.7final
2003Richest 1%17.9final
2004Richest 1%18.1final
2005Richest 1%18.2final
2006Richest 1%18.2final
2007Richest 1%18.1final
2008Richest 1%17.8final
2009Richest 1%17.2final
2010Richest 1%17.3final
2011Richest 1%17.2final
2012Richest 1%17.1final
2013Richest 1%17.1final
2014Richest 1%16.9final
2015Richest 1%16.9final
2016Richest 1%16.7final
2017Richest 1%16.8final
2018Richest 1%17.0final
2019Richest 1%16.7final
2020Richest 1%16.6final
2021Richest 1%16.6final
2022Richest 1%16.8final
1990Poorest 50%8.7final
1991Poorest 50%8.4final
1992Poorest 50%8.5final
1993Poorest 50%8.2final
1994Poorest 50%7.9final
1995Poorest 50%8.1final
1996Poorest 50%8.2final
1997Poorest 50%8.1final
1998Poorest 50%7.9final
1999Poorest 50%7.9final
2000Poorest 50%7.5final
2001Poorest 50%7.3final
2002Poorest 50%7.2final
2003Poorest 50%7.2final
2004Poorest 50%7.2final
2005Poorest 50%7.1final
2006Poorest 50%7.2final
2007Poorest 50%7.2final
2008Poorest 50%7.3final
2009Poorest 50%7.7final
2010Poorest 50%7.6final
2011Poorest 50%7.6final
2012Poorest 50%7.6final
2013Poorest 50%7.6final
2014Poorest 50%7.8final
2015Poorest 50%7.9final
2016Poorest 50%7.9final
2017Poorest 50%8.0final
2018Poorest 50%7.8final
2019Poorest 50%8.1final
2020Poorest 50%8.1final
2021Poorest 50%8.0final
2022Poorest 50%8.0final
Calculated by Environment Dashboard from Stockholm Environment Institute data: Emissions Inequality Dashboard (Ghosh, Nazareth, Wang, Kartha and Kemp-Benedict, 2021), https://emissions-inequality.org, accessed 2026-10-05, CC BY 4.0. Changes: emission shares of income slices added up into three groups (poorest 50%, richest 10%, richest 1%) and converted from fractions to percent. CC BY 4.0 (the About page says "CC BY" and links the 4.0 licence).

Where it comes from

Producer
Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) · Emissions Inequality Dashboard
Version
1990-2022 consumption-based years of the 1990-2023 historical series, retrieved 2026-10-04
File
https://www.sei-eqtrans-dev.net/api/globalHistoricalDataByYear/search.php
Fetched
2026-10-04 (automatically), 877,309 bytes
Fingerprint
sha256 9ad0752d138df5969a5b5b1069dab34ea2da07de35b18398bfc2fe9360c437f7
Copies
No Wayback copy recorded yet.Our copy of the exact file
Cite the producer
Emily Ghosh, Anisha Nazareth, Guozhong Wang, Sivan Kartha, Eric Kemp-Benedict (2021). Emissions Inequality Dashboard. Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). https://emissions-inequality.org
Producer
Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) · Emissions Inequality Dashboard
Version
1990-2022 consumption-based years of the 1990-2023 historical series, retrieved 2026-10-04
File
https://www.sei-eqtrans-dev.net/api/historicalDataByCountry/search.php?country=CHE&startyear=1990&endyear=2023
Fetched
2026-10-05 (automatically), 7,538 bytes
Fingerprint
sha256 e23373e0dc5636820764920383da434f5c51c66ced61a032d2d299cf63f39d38
Copies
No Wayback copy recorded yet.Our copy of the exact file
Cite the producer
Emily Ghosh, Anisha Nazareth, Guozhong Wang, Sivan Kartha, Eric Kemp-Benedict (2021). Emissions Inequality Dashboard. Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). https://emissions-inequality.org
Producer
Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) · Emissions Inequality Dashboard
Version
1990-2022 consumption-based years of the 1990-2023 historical series, retrieved 2026-10-04
File
https://www.sei-eqtrans-dev.net/api/historicalDataByCountry/search.php?country=USA&startyear=1990&endyear=2023
Fetched
2026-10-05 (automatically), 7,673 bytes
Fingerprint
sha256 ed93564c2981e1279ea88d5ac22b4efe2284c4e7b14cd970a7cca9460b0ec365
Copies
No Wayback copy recorded yet.Our copy of the exact file
Cite the producer
Emily Ghosh, Anisha Nazareth, Guozhong Wang, Sivan Kartha, Eric Kemp-Benedict (2021). Emissions Inequality Dashboard. Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). https://emissions-inequality.org
Producer
Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) · Emissions Inequality Dashboard
Version
1990-2022 consumption-based years of the 1990-2023 historical series, retrieved 2026-10-04
File
https://www.sei-eqtrans-dev.net/api/historicalDataByCountry/search.php?country=GBR&startyear=1990&endyear=2023
Fetched
2026-10-05 (automatically), 7,638 bytes
Fingerprint
sha256 fde2cd775620ab9e3c9f7edd6659638174e5efbb14ebfa0a8fcbdeae16889629
Copies
No Wayback copy recorded yet.Our copy of the exact file
Cite the producer
Emily Ghosh, Anisha Nazareth, Guozhong Wang, Sivan Kartha, Eric Kemp-Benedict (2021). Emissions Inequality Dashboard. Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). https://emissions-inequality.org

What was done to it

  1. Read the Historical Global Shares API response (sha256 9ad0752d138d…, retrieved 2026-10-04): 4318 records, 1990–2023, 127 income slices a year. Checked for every year that the slices run from 0 to 100% of people with no gap or overlap, that each slice's width matches its label, and that the emission shares add up to 1 (within one billionth).

    Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/emissions/sei_inequality.py · code sha256 292fb86ce87643c7… · inputs 9ad0752d138d… e23373e0dc56… ed93564c2981… fde2cd775620…

  2. Kept 1990–2022 and left out 2023. SEI's national inputs are consumption-based up to 2022 and territorial (where emissions happen) from 2023, so later shares are not comparable. The API's own national values show the break (historicalDataByCountry, NatEmisions as served, rounded here to the tonne; snapshots retrieved 2026-10-05): Switzerland 121,979,300 t in 2022 and 32,737,300 t in 2023 (sha256 e23373e0dc56…); the United States 5,642,856,100 t in 2022 and 4,911,391,000 t in 2023 (sha256 ed93564c2981…); the United Kingdom 488,532,000 t in 2022 and 305,146,300 t in 2023 (sha256 fde2cd775620…). The 2023 values match Global Carbon Budget 2025 territorial emissions, not consumption (research of 2026-10-05, docs/research/sources-ghg-food-personal-2026-10-05.json).

    Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/emissions/sei_inequality.py · code sha256 292fb86ce87643c7… · inputs 9ad0752d138d… e23373e0dc56… ed93564c2981… fde2cd775620…

  3. For each year, added up the EmissionShare of the slices in each group with exact decimal arithmetic on the values as served: the poorest 50% (slices up to the 50th percentile), the richest 10% (from the 90th) and the richest 1% (from the 99th, which SEI splits into finer slices). The richest 1% are part of the richest 10%.

    Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/emissions/sei_inequality.py · code sha256 292fb86ce87643c7… · inputs 9ad0752d138d… e23373e0dc56… ed93564c2981… fde2cd775620…

  4. Multiplied by 100 to give percent.

    Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/emissions/sei_inequality.py · code sha256 292fb86ce87643c7… · inputs 9ad0752d138d… e23373e0dc56… ed93564c2981… fde2cd775620…

What it covers

Geography
World: everyone in the world, ranked by income per person (2021 US dollars at purchasing power parity)
Land use, land-use change and forestry
excluded
Basis
Fossil carbon dioxide only, consumption-based (territorial emissions plus net emissions embodied in trade); other greenhouse gases and land-use change are not included. Each country's emissions are shared among its people in proportion to income between a floor and a ceiling (SEI's elasticity of 1). SEI's pages do not say how international aviation and shipping are allocated.
Unit
percent of world consumption carbon dioxide emissions (%)