Energy Consumption Around the World
As most people suspect, the United States is the number one consumer of oil in the world, followed by China, Japan, India, Russia, Germany, South Korea, and Canada. China, however, is the world’s largest consumer of coal, with the United States coming in number two, followed by India, Japan, and Russia. The annual oil and coal consumption figures for eight of the top total energy-consuming nations in the world, according to figures released by the
BP Statistical Review of World Energy
for a recent year, are as follows.
|
Oil Consumption
|
Coal Consumption
|
Country
|
(million tons)
|
(million tons oil equivalent)
|
United States
|
943.1
|
573.7
|
China
|
368.0
|
1311.4
|
Japan
|
228.9
|
125.3
|
India
|
128.5
|
208.0
|
Russia
|
125.9
|
94.5
|
Germany
|
112.5
|
86.0
|
South Korea
|
107.6
|
59.7
|
Canada
|
102.3
|
30.4
|
Managerial and Statistical Questions
Suppose you are an energy industry analyst and you are asked to prepare a brief report showing the leading energy-consumption countries in both oil and coal.
1. What is the best way to display the energy consumption data in a report? Are the raw data enough? Can you effectively display the data graphically?
2. Is there a way to graphically display oil and coal figures together so that readers can visually compare countries on their consumptions of the two different energy sources?