% of the electricity mix 1985–2024 · OWID (Energy Institute + Ember) · 36 countries
Share of nuclear power in a country's total electricity generation. This is a SHARE, not a volume: a country can show a high proportion with a handful of reactors if its consumption is modest, and a low proportion while ranking among the world's largest producers in terawatt-hours.
Our World in Data, from the Energy Institute and Ember, from 1985 to 2024. Only 36 countries operate nuclear power plants; all the others are at zero, which is not missing data. The series covers electricity only — naval propulsion and military uses do not appear.
Six bands, from 0-5% to 70% and above. This map is read alongside the nuclear power plants map, which gives locations and installed capacity: the share states the energy choice, the points state the industrial base that makes it possible.
France remains the most nuclear-powered country in the world, at around 65 to 70% of its electricity, a legacy of the Messmer plan launched after the 1973 oil shock. Germany closed its last reactors in April 2023, going from 30% to zero in about twenty years. Elsewhere the trend runs the other way: China is currently building more reactors than the rest of the world combined.