Air conditioning is almost universal in the US and Japan — but not elsewhere | Our World in Data
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Data InsightsAir conditioning is almost universal in the US and Japan — but not elsewhere<br>August 13, 2026<br>Air conditioning is almost universal in the US and Japan — but not elsewhere
Hannah Ritchie<br>Download
Many countries have been facing intense heat this summer, and with predictions of a strong El Niño on the way, next summer could be even hotter. This has ignited debate on the need for cooling methods and technologies — most prominently, air conditioning (AC).<br>But how do rates of air conditioning usage vary across the world? Large international comparisons are hard to come by, but the International Energy Agency just published some new estimates for a select number of countries and regions.<br>The chart shows the estimated share of households with AC in 2025.<br>In Japan and the United States, AC adoption is almost universal; at least 90% of households have it. Most households in China also have AC; this share has increased rapidly over the past decade.<br>Adoption rates in Southeast Asia, Europe, and India are far lower, but for different reasons. In lower-middle-income countries like India, the reasons are often economic: AC would bring huge benefits, but many households cannot afford the upfront cost or the power to run it. Much of Southeast Asia faces a similar barrier.<br>In many European countries, it’s less of an economic barrier and more of a historical and cultural one. AC was not seen as a necessity because heatwave events were less frequent and intense than they are today. That is changing, and will continue to do so as the planet warms.<br>Read part one of my three-part explainer on heat deaths, and how they may change in the future
Related topic pages:<br>Energy<br>Climate Change
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Our latest Data Insights<br>See all Data Insights<br>Yesterday<br>Four developed countries met the UN’s target for foreign aid in 2025<br>Hannah Ritchie and Pablo Arriagada<br>In the 1970s, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution asking developed countries to contribute at least 0.7% of their national income to foreign aid. Most countries signed off on this goal, except for Switzerland and the United States.<br>But very few countries have met this target in the fifty years since then. Even today, only a handful of countries do.<br>In 2023, five countries met this target: Norway, Luxembourg, Sweden, Germany, and Denmark. Two years on, this has dropped to four, as Germany’s contribution shrank to 0.6%.<br>As you can see in the chart, other developed countries give less than 0.7% of their national income.<br>Explore more of our charts on foreign aid: who contributes, and where it goes
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August 15<br>Rich countries spend 60 times as much on healthcare per person as poor countries<br>Hannah Ritchie and Pablo Arriagada<br>Rich countries spend, on average, the equivalent of $7,300 per person on healthcare each year. This includes public and private expenditures.<br>In low-income countries, the equivalent is only around $125 per person.<br>This is based on spending data from the World Health Organization’s Global Health Observatory, which you can see in the chart across levels of income. The data is adjusted for differences in living costs between countries.<br>That means rich countries spend around 60 times as much per person on healthcare as the poorest countries.<br>This resource gap is one of the reasons for the stark differences in health outcomes. The average life expectancy is around 16 years lower in poorer countries, and other health measures, such as child mortality,...