The question
How much electricity does a home use in a year? How many electricity consumers are there in Saudi Arabia? And who uses more: homes or factories?
The figure
According to the electricity statistics in GASTAT’s database, a household used 18,590 kilowatt-hours on average in 2024 (Jumada al-Akhirah 1445 – Jumada al-Akhirah 1446 AH). That is about 1,549 kilowatt-hours a month, or 51 a day, by our calculation.
The average was 17,469 in 2022 (Jumada al-Ula 1443 – Jumada al-Akhirah 1444 AH), so it rose 6.4% in two years.
The average residential consumer used 17,595 kilowatt-hours a year, and the average per person was 4,567. A consumer in these figures is a registered electricity account, not a person.
How many consumers?
From 2010 to 2024 (Muharram 1431 – Jumada al-Akhirah 1446 AH) the number of electricity consumers in Saudi Arabia rose from 6.0 million to 11.3 million, an increase of 89.0%.
All electricity consumed rose 60.4%, from 212,263 to 340,430 gigawatt-hours. So consumers grew faster than consumption itself.
Where does the electricity go?
In 2024, 47.4% of the electricity consumed went to homes, 18.6% to factories, 17.3% to shops and offices, 11.0% to government bodies, and 5.7% to others.
Homes’ consumption rose 13.1% between 2021 and 2024, from 142,484 to 161,207 gigawatt-hours.
By region: Riyadh has 28.0% of homes’ electricity, Makkah 25.6% and the Eastern Province 16.5%, or 70.2% for the three regions. The smallest is Al-Baha with 1,434 gigawatt-hours.
Three regions take most of the electricity used by homes
Electricity sold to homes in each region, 2024 (Jumada al-Akhirah 1445 – Jumada al-Akhirah 1446 AH), in gigawatt-hours. Sorted from the largest
| Region | Gigawatt-hours | Of the national residential total |
|---|---|---|
| Riyadh | 45,213 | 28.0% |
| Makkah | 41,260 | 25.6% |
| Eastern Province | 26,659 | 16.5% |
| Madinah | 10,427 | 6.5% |
| Jazan | 7,943 | 4.9% |
| Asir | 7,478 | 4.6% |
| Qassim | 7,145 | 4.4% |
| Tabuk | 3,641 | 2.3% |
| Hail | 3,399 | 2.1% |
| Al-Jouf | 2,547 | 1.6% |
| Najran | 2,345 | 1.5% |
| Northern Borders | 1,716 | 1.1% |
| Al-Baha | 1,434 | 0.9% |
| Saudi Arabia | 161,207 | 100.0% |
What this means for your decision
The figures describe what happened up to 2024, and do not predict what will happen.
- For a homeowner: find your yearly use in kilowatt-hours and compare it with the household average of 18,590. The average does not distinguish a large home from a small one, or a large household from a small one.
- For anyone selling home appliances or working in insulation and maintenance: homes take nearly half of Saudi Arabia’s electricity, and electricity consumers rose 89.0% since 2010.
- For researchers: the number of consumers counts electricity accounts, not people, so do not divide the population by it. If you compare regions, compare homes’ total electricity, because the household average is not published by region.
Analytical reading, not financial advice.
Full official figures: Energy and environment: the official figures · How do Saudis live? (reading)(Arabic) · How many barrels does Saudi Arabia produce? (reading)(Arabic) · All insights(Arabic)
Translated from the Arabic reading; the Arabic text is the original. The original reading(Arabic)