Top 15 Biggest CO₂ Emitters vs Emissions per Person | 1900–2025

China emits a third of the world's CO₂, yet per person it ranks only 33rd in the world. India is the No.3 emitter and 129th per person. Watch the 15 biggest emitters race on two scoreboards at once from 1900 to 2025: total CO₂ on the left, CO₂ per person on the right — with each country's rank among every country and territory on Earth. From the age of coal and Britain's 1926 strike, through the Great Depression, Stalin's Five-Year Plans, World War II, Mao's Great Leap Forward and the oil shocks, to Kuwait's burning oil wells, the Soviet collapse, China's rise and COVID-19. ⏱ Chapters 0:00 1900 The Age of Coal 0:53 1914 World War I 1:17 1920 Mexico's Oil Boom 1:41 1926 The General Strike 1:57 1930 The Great Depression 2:13 1934 Five-Year Plans 2:29 1938 Oil Islands 2:57 1945 Year Zero 3:25 1952 Post-War Boom 3:49 1958 Great Leap Forward 4:21 1966 Japan's Miracle 4:49 1973 Oil Shock 5:17 1980 The Black Triangle 5:45 1987 The Warning 5:57 1990 Kuwait on Fire 6:25 1997 Kyoto 6:53 2004 Oil Kingdom 7:13 2009 Financial Crisis 7:33 2014 China Passes Britain 7:57 2020 COVID-19 8:09 2023 Total ≠ Per Person 📊 Data & method • CO₂: Global Carbon Project (Global Carbon Budget), via Our World in Data. Fossil fuels and industry (cement etc.), territorial emissions; land-use change not included. • 2025 is a preliminary estimate: the Global Carbon Project's 2025 figures are not out yet, so each country's 2024 value is extended with its 2024→2025 change in EDGAR (EU Joint Research Centre, 2026 report). • CO₂ per person = emissions ÷ population (Our World in Data), so the two panels always match. • World rank (right panel) = rank among all countries and territories with data that year — about 50–90 before 1950 and 155–214 after. Tiny oil and refinery islands (Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Bahrain, Qatar…) often top the per-person list. • Borders: the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia are shown as single countries until they broke up (the sum of today's successor states; before 1922 "Soviet Union" means the same territory under the Russian Empire). Germany is today's Germany throughout. • 1991 Kuwait includes the oil-well fires set by retreating Iraqi troops (about 478 million tonnes), as in the Global Carbon Project data. 📷 Photos (Wikimedia Commons): 1920 Mexico's Oil Boom: SMU Central University Libraries · No restrictions · https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=53246117 1966 Japan's Miracle: TAKAYOSHI_ENDOU · CC BY 4.0 · https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=19785... 1980 The Black Triangle: bdk · CC BY-SA 3.0 · https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=1331351 1990 Kuwait on Fire: EdJF · CC BY-SA 4.0 · https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=70849254 1992 The Soviet Collapse: Ivtorov · CC BY-SA 4.0 · https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=49300221 1997 Kyoto: Marie-Sophie Mejan · CC BY 4.0 · https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=12015... 2006 China Takes the Lead: Kleineolive · CC BY 3.0 · https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=10878443 2009 Financial Crisis: David Shankbone · CC BY-SA 3.0 · https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=2559779 2011 Fukushima: kawamoto takuo · CC BY 2.0 · https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=14867068 2014 China Passes Britain: N Chadwick · CC BY-SA 2.0 · https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=13195... 2020 COVID-19: Jules Verne Times Two · CC BY-SA 4.0 · https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=15849... 1900 The Age of Coal, 1903 America Takes Over, 1914 World War I, 1926 The General Strike, 1930 The Great Depression, 1934 Five-Year Plans, 1938 Oil Islands, 1945 Year Zero, 1958 Great Leap Forward, 1973 Oil Shock, 1987 The Warning, 2004 Oil Kingdom: public domain Flags: flagcdn.com and Wikimedia Commons (public domain). #climatechange #co2 #datavisualization