The country that emits the most CO2 is not the country that emits the most CO2 per person
In 2024 China emitted 13,124.7 Mt of CO2, nearly three times the United States at 4,632.2 Mt. Per person the order changes: China 9.32 t, the United States 13.62 t, and Qatar 47.33 t on a national total of just 135.3 Mt. India is third on total emissions and the lowest per person of the four. Both columns come from one World Bank release, so the disagreement is arithmetic, not a clash of sources.
China emits nearly three times the CO2 the United States does, and about a third as much per person as Qatar — the same World Bank release supports both statements.
Which country emits the most CO2?
China, and not narrowly. It emitted 13,124.7 Mt of CO2 in 2024 against 4,632.2 Mt for the United States — nearly three times as much — with India third of the four countries here at 3,153.8 Mt. On totals the ranking is stable and has been for years. That is the number quoted when the question is which country is doing the most damage, and taken on its own it is a complete answer to a question nobody quite asked.
Does dividing by population change the ranking?
Completely. Per person, China emitted 9.32 t of CO2 in 2024 and the United States 13.62 t — about 46% more. Qatar emitted 47.33 t per person, roughly five times China, on a national total of 135.3 Mt, which is around one percent of China’s. The country that leads one column is nowhere near the top of the other, and neither column is a correction of the other: they answer different questions.
Can a country be a top emitter and among the lowest per person?
India is both, in the same table. It is third on total emissions at 3,153.8 Mt and the lowest per person of these four at 2.17 t — under a sixth of the United States. Nothing is inconsistent about that; it is what a large population does to a ratio. But it means a sentence beginning “India is one of the world’s biggest emitters” and one beginning “India emits very little per person” are both accurate, and a reader shown only one has been given a position rather than a fact.
Has this always been the case?
The two measures separated at a specific point. China passed the United States on total emissions in 2005 and has stayed ahead since; on emissions per person it has never passed the United States in this data, in any year from 2000 to 2024. Meanwhile the American figure fell — down about 35% per person since 2000, and the US total is lower now than it was then. A story told with either series alone would miss half of that.
Which of these should a chart show?
Whichever it shows, it should say which, and ideally show both. A bar chart of totals puts China far out in front and reads as an indictment. A bar chart per person puts Qatar in front and China mid-table, and reads as an exoneration. Both are drawn from the same World Bank release and neither is wrong. The chart on this page plots them as two axes at once, because the honest answer to “who emits the most” is that it depends on a choice the chart usually makes silently.
What can’t this data tell you?
Who is responsible. These are territorial emissions, counted where they are released, so goods made in one country and consumed in another count against the maker. They exclude land use and forestry, cover CO2 only rather than all greenhouse gases, and are annual flows — the cumulative total a country has already added to the atmosphere is a different figure that ranks countries differently again. None of that is a flaw in the data; it is the boundary of what this particular dataset was built to answer.
How this was measured
- Indicator
- — World Bank — CO2 emissions excluding LULUCF, total (EN.GHG.CO2.MT.CE.AR5) and per capita (EN.GHG.CO2.PC.CE.AR5), compiled from EDGAR (JRC, European Commission) and the IEA
- What it means
- — These are territorial emissions: carbon dioxide released inside a country’s borders, from energy, industry, agriculture and waste, excluding land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF). They are not emissions embodied in what a country’s residents buy, so a country that imports its manufactured goods records lower emissions than one that makes them, and the difference is not visible here. The figures cover CO2 only — methane and nitrous oxide are excluded — and are annual flows, not the cumulative total a country has put into the atmosphere. They are compiled for the World Bank from EDGAR (Joint Research Centre, European Commission) and the IEA, and are estimates rather than measurements.
- Period covered
- — 2000 to 2024
- Published
- — 27 July 2026
- Figures last verified
- — 27 July 2026. Every value in the CSV below was compared against the live source on that date; the page is not edited and this date does not move unless they still match. The source can revise its own figures at any time, and Furlen does not independently audit it.
- Rights
- — World Bank open data (CC BY 4.0) — cited with attribution
Common questions
Which country emits the most CO2 per person?
Of the four countries on this page, Qatar — 47.33 t per person in 2024, against 13.62 t for the United States, 9.32 t for China and 2.17 t for India. Qatar’s national total is 135.3 Mt, about one percent of China’s 13,124.7 Mt. Small states with energy-intensive industries dominate the per-person ranking and are almost absent from the totals ranking.
Is China or the United States the bigger polluter?
It depends which question you are asking, and the World Bank data supports both answers. China emits nearly three times the total (13,124.7 Mt against 4,632.2 Mt in 2024). The United States emits about 46% more per person (13.62 t against 9.32 t) and has done in every year since 2000. Neither figure is a correction of the other, and picking one without saying so is where most published comparisons go wrong.
Where does this data come from and can I check it?
The World Bank’s CO2 series excluding LULUCF — total (EN.GHG.CO2.MT.CE.AR5) and per capita (EN.GHG.CO2.PC.CE.AR5) — pulled 2026-07-27, compiled from EDGAR at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre and the IEA. Both columns come from the same release on purpose. Note that the older EN.ATM.CO2E.* indicators many comparisons still cite have been discontinued and now return nothing. Every row behind the chart downloads as CSV from this page and is re-verified against the live World Bank API on a schedule.
Other stories about reading data carefully
- Access Doubled in Sub-Saharan Africa. 73M More Lack Power.
Same rows, opposite conclusions — Sub-Saharan Africa’s electricity access rose from 25.7% to 55.1% since 2000. Population grew faster, so 73 million more people now live without it.
- Euro-Area Inflation Fell to 2.7%. Prices Are 27.1% Higher.
Same rows, opposite conclusions — Euro-area inflation peaked at 10.6% in October 2022 and was 2.7% in June 2026. The price level never came back down — it is 27.1% above January 2020.
- Japan Grew and Shrank at the Same Time
Same rows, opposite conclusions — Measured in constant dollars Japan’s economy grew about 5% over the decade to 2025. Measured in current dollars it shrank about 2%. Same country, same source, opposite sign.
Make one from your own data
This chart was built in Furlen from the CSV above, and every figure in the text is recomputed from those rows before export. You can do the same with a spreadsheet, or ask for a public dataset by name.
More on how claims are checked on the Truth Engine page.