Countries

China and India

CO2 from fossil fuels and industry produced in each country (territorial emissions; land-use change is not included), for 2022, the latest year with total, per-person and per-GDP figures for at least 150 countries. Ranks are among those 164 countries.

China emitted 4.1 times as much CO2 per person as India in 2022. China emitted 4.1 times as much CO2 in total as India.

China and India, 2022
MeasureChinaIndia
Totalmillion tonnes11,7121st of 1642,8313rd of 164
Per persontonnes8.2224th of 1641.9999th of 164
Per unit of GDPkg per international dollar (2011 prices, PPP)0.43419th of 1640.2750th of 164

Per person over time

CO2 per person, China and India, 1950 to 2024

CO2 from fossil fuels and industry per person, 1950 to 2024. China: 0.145 tonnes per person in 1950, 8.66 in 2024, with a high of 8.66 in 2024. India: 0.176 tonnes per person in 1950, 2.20 in 2024, with a high of 2.20 in 2024.

Show the data as a table
Every fifth year and the latest, tonnes per person
YearChina, tonnesIndia, tonnes
19500.1450.176
19550.3160.203
19601.220.255
19650.6920.314
19700.9810.333
19751.290.383
19801.520.424
19851.880.515
19902.150.668
19952.750.792
20002.870.933
20054.491.04
20106.371.35
20157.061.68
20207.641.73
20248.662.20

Sources and licences

  • Our World in Data, CO2 and Greenhouse Gas Emissions (owid-co2-data.csv): countries from 1950. Our World in Data, CO2 and Greenhouse Gas Emissions (ourworldindata.org/co2-and-greenhouse-gas-emissions), based on the Global Carbon Budget (2025), the Maddison Project Database 2023 (Bolt and van Zanden) and OWID's population series. Retrieved 16 October 2026. CC BY 4.0 for Our World in Data's own work; data produced by third parties keeps its source's terms (OWID's co2-data README). CO2: Global Carbon Budget (2025); GDP: Maddison Project Database 2023; population: OWID's population series. Terms, full data file. Changes: Countries only (rows with a three-letter ISO code), years from 1950, and the columns iso_code, country, year, population, co2, co2_per_capita, co2_per_gdp and the CO2 by source (coal, oil, gas, cement, flaring, other industry); values and row order as published; LF line endings.

Our chart is licensed CC BY 4.0: share it with a credit and a link. The data keep their sources' terms, and no endorsement is implied.

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