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Countries by Carbon Dioxide Emissions per Capita

Try to guess the countries that emit the most carbon dioxide per capita.
Measured in terms of metric tons of CO2 per person
For the year 2021. Based on this source.
Think islands and oil producers
Quiz by kalbahamut
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Last updated: June 6, 2023
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First submittedApril 24, 2014
Times taken47,106
Average score55.0%
Rating3.87
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CO2
Continent
Answer
60.2
Oceania
Palau
34.4
Asia
Qatar
22.5
Asia
Kuwait
21.5
Asia
Bahrain
21.0
North America
Trinidad and Tobago
19.5
Asia
United Arab Emirates
18.0
Asia
Oman
16.6
Asia
Saudi Arabia
16.1
Asia
Brunei
14.9
North America
Canada
14.3
Oceania
Australia
14.2
North America
United States
13.8
Europe
Luxembourg
13.6
Asia
Turkmenistan
13.5
Europe
Russia
12.1
Asia
South Korea
12.1
Asia
Taiwan
11.5
Europe
Estonia
11.1
Asia
Kazakhstan
10.8
Africa
Seychelles
benjaminmarker
+4
Level 71
May 2, 2014
Surprised to see Luxembourg on the list. Is there a quiz with the least emission per capita?
kalbahamut
+14
Level 82
May 4, 2014
No, but it would be pretty similar to several other quizzes on the site related to low HDI, low life expectancy, low GDP per capita, etc. In other words, mostly African countries and Afghanistan (1. Mali, 2. DRC, 3. Chad, 4. Burundi, 5. Afghanistan). Though Nepal shows up in the top 20 at #11, while not showing up on those other lists. That would be the one mild surprise of the quiz.
Dragonninja42
+16
Level 55
Apr 2, 2016
Luxembourg is a Tax haven micro state. Many people (including myself) flock there when travelling through Europe for Cheap fuel, oil, alcohol, cigarettes ect. I'm sure most of these emissions are made by French, German, Dutch, and the English rather than the Luxembourgians themselves.
Stormswift
+2
Level 35
Jul 5, 2019
Just a wee tweak - though I guess it doesn't make a lot of difference in the overall picture - it's not a state - it's a Sovereign Country.
kalbahamut
+32
Level 82
Jul 5, 2019
State and country are synonyms in most contexts. Using state as a synonym for province or political subdivision is something odd that the USA does; an artifact from the nation's founding when the 13 different colonies that came together were largely autonomous and sovereign, coming together to form a federation.
MasterKenobi
+3
Level 60
Jul 22, 2023
The US isn't unique in calling smaller administrative divisions "states" though. Australia, Austria, Brazil, Germany, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Micronesia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Nigeria, Palau, and South Sudan all have states as well.
Viztiz
+1
Level 56
Oct 30, 2023
This take is highly euro-centric.

India, for example, is a union of 28 states and 8 union territories. Each division with its unique culture, languages and people. This is comparable to the European Union.

kalbahamut
+1
Level 82
Feb 11, 2024
huh?
CaoMaru
+7
Level 50
Jan 3, 2021
And in fact state is the word that is most commonly used in legal arenas. For example, countries can be UN member states.
eveersma
+10
Level 48
Jun 24, 2016
60% of the Luxembourg labour force does not live in Luxembourg. Instead, they commute from neighbouring cities in Belgium, France, and Germany. So, the economic output generated by these individuals are counted as domestic product for Luxembourg but the people who generate that product don't live in the country and so aren't part of its population when we calculate GDP per capita.Thats why its GDP (on paper) is this high. Probably this also holds for the emission statistics.
ander217
+8
Level 75
Jul 13, 2014
The answers all seem random - I couldn't find a pattern to make guessing easier, such as large populations or large numbers of cars.
kalbahamut
+23
Level 82
Jul 15, 2014
There are 4 main groups I see with some overlap. There are the large, highly developed, heavily industrialized car-culture countries where most people have cars, use a lot of energy, and frequently drive long distances (USA, Canada, Russia, Australia, to a lesser extent Saudi); there are the small, very urban countries where almost all people live in cities (Qatar, Kuwait, Brunei, UAE, Bahrain, Luxembourg, Estonia, South Korea, Czech Republic, Taiwan, Netherlands); there are oil rich countries that don't give a crap (Qatar, Kuwait, Brunei, UAE, Saudi, Oman, Kazakhstan); and finally tiny island nations that burn a lot of resources comparatively speaking to support their unsustainable population sizes and/or standards of living (Trinidad, Bahrain, Taiwan, Nauru).
kalbahamut
+4
Level 82
Feb 2, 2016
With Finland and Turkmenistan showing up after the update this kind of dismantles my previous theory. Finland because... it's cold? And they spend more energy for heating? Turkmenistan... no idea.
AllenY
+7
Level 69
Apr 2, 2016
I'd say it's a mixture of oil/other natural resource production, not caring about the environment much, industrialisation/manufacturing, being rich, and having a big country. USA fits into 1, maybe 2, maybe 3, 4 and 5. Canada fits into 1, it did fit into 2, I think 3, 4, and 5 definitely. Russia is basically all 5, with slight doubts on 2, 3 and particularly 4. Australia is probably all of them except 3. Saudi Arabia is all 5. Qatar is 1, 2, maybe 3, 4. Kuwait is the same. I think Brunei produces oil or gas... it's 2, possibly 3 (don't know), and 4. etc. There's a few that don't fit into this, for example Finland, so maybe there's something about the islands burning resources to be said, the same way obesity happens, but I'm not sure about it or how to put it down. The above 5 seems to work pretty well, and there's always going to be some outliers.
Olinguito
+1
Level 45
Apr 2, 2016
Motor sport is very popular in Finland, so probably that is why Finland is on the list.
WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot
+3
Level 57
Apr 2, 2016
Most things come in and go out of Finland by ship, which could have something to do with it. The average age of Finnish cars is the oldest in Europe; most people have one and a lot of them have a long distance to drive to work, school, etc. The government has been more reluctant to invest in environmentally friendly energy sources than her Nordic neighbours. Then there's the forest industry, metal industry, paper industry, mining, and so on; all fairly big and polluting things.
lestimian
+7
Level 48
Apr 13, 2016
Turkmenistan is a major oil producing country (the second-biggest of the Soviet Union apparently), that's probably why it's on the list. And having an indoor ice rink in the middle of the desert might explain the hefty energy bill.
adnanadil
+4
Level 52
Aug 1, 2016
The #1 reason why many countries appear on this list is water. Those that do not have freshwater sources have to use desalinated seawater for literally everything. It's a high-energy operation and therefore impact CO2 emissions. Particularly true for the middle eastern countries in there. I'm surprised Israel is not on this list as they are big on desalination.
azhfandak
+1
Level 75
Aug 10, 2017
turkmenistan is rich in natural gas. therefore it has high co2 emission. trinidad is not just a miserable island. it has significant deposits of tar compared to its size.
roleybob
+11
Level 75
Sep 11, 2018
Don't forget the effect of outsourcing production.

I don't have the numbers but I expect the UK might be on here (and maybe other European countries) if we manufactured our own goods. Instead, we have them made elsewhere and shipped here so that the emissions count towards the country that manufactured them and we can pretend we're a clean country

tshalla
+1
Level 75
Nov 28, 2018
Trinidad: bitumen
ander217
+4
Level 75
Oct 1, 2018
I was going to comment that these answers all seem very random, then I saw that someone already did - me. :)
communisteggplant
+3
Level 73
Oct 31, 2014
Interesting! Only minor surprise to me is that Singapore isn't on here.
Quizmaster
+4
Level ∞
Jan 31, 2016
Here's the source data:

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.ATM.CO2E.PC

Singapore is actually far down the list. Probably because they don't drive as much and because they get 90% of their electricity from natural gas.

tschutzer
+2
Level 91
Feb 1, 2016
Agree with the reasoning with respect to not driving, but natural gas emits an equivalent amount of CO2 to oil or coal. Countries that get off the hook for power generation emissions are those that use extensive nuclear (France) or wind/solar/hydro power (Germany).
Quizmaster
+7
Level ∞
Feb 2, 2016
Your comment made me doubt myself, so I checked:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emission_intensity

Compared to coal, natural gas produces half as much carbon per unit of energy.

kogatora
+1
Level 93
Aug 9, 2018
its on there now
Kahikatea
+4
Level 76
Sep 25, 2019
By official figures, natural gas only emits half as much CO2 per unit of energy as coal. However, it wouldn't take much unburned natural gas leaking into the atmosphere to push its warming contribution higher than that of coal, because natural gas is such a potent greenhouse gas itself. The standard figures do not count possible leakage.
kalbahamut
+2
Level 82
Sep 25, 2019
interesting
brandybuck96
+3
Level 83
Feb 17, 2016
I thought there would be more micronations on here. But I wasn't that surprised by the results.
kalbahamut
+1
Level 82
Apr 2, 2016
A bit late, but:

KalBahamut's April Fools Day Quiz #2

Gnomeland24
+8
Level 68
Apr 2, 2016
Minus the arabic countries, and this is the most random list of nations I have ever seen on any quiz. So strange, countries from six continents, all economies, many populations. Weird.
MyMindWentBlank
+3
Level 61
May 13, 2016
Wait... Canada emits more C02 than China? How is that possible?!
MyMindWentBlank
+2
Level 61
May 13, 2016
I know it's per capita but still.
kalbahamut
+9
Level 82
May 13, 2016
per capita it's quite easy to understand. In absolute terms, it's not even close.
joeythelemur
+2
Level 84
Mar 17, 2017
Canada is not exactly full of a huge peasant class using few fossil fuels. China's average is brought way down by this.
MyMindWentBlank
+1
Level 61
May 13, 2016
Would've helped to read the populations, I would have gotten several of the countries I missed.
BBENSoN
+1
Level 48
Jun 25, 2016
Trinidad and Tobago and Palau :? Wouldn't have expected that.
SHB2000
+1
Level 42
Jul 16, 2023
They both have extremely low populations, hence increasing their CO2 emissions per capita.
redsplat
+1
Level 74
Jul 18, 2016
Interesting quiz, and tough! Thanks for making this.
protector441
+1
Level 48
Jul 22, 2016
Really interesting data. I was surprised a lot. This index is usually compared to nation´s GDP i think, so this way it makes completely different view. Quite a lot surprised by Australia, Canada and Finland, always thought they are moving towards more clean energy. Australia might be caused by lack of railways (the truck-trains are quite a well-known) and Canada because of forest harvesting industry? Perhaps? Trinidad and Tobago also got my attention, but what disappoint me most is Czech Republic, my birthplace and home country. We invested quite a lot money to filtration, improvement and modernization of our poor aged lignite power plants (also built some nuclear, wind, solar etc.) and emissions of sulfur oxides reduced by 2-3 times since then, so I thought now we are not as much terrible and found that kinda sad.
kalbahamut
+1
Level 82
Jul 22, 2016
Czechia did not appear on the quiz prior to the last update, so whatever's going on there is a recent thing.
protector441
+1
Level 48
Jul 22, 2016
I am not aware about any change in recent cca 5 years. Perhaps it is just increased quality of life and higher number of cars (not significantly) and perhaps it is caused because some nation around 20 place reduced the emissions. Anyway interesting. We have what to work on.
michelesol
+1
Level 65
Jan 29, 2018
You still burn too much coal. Third in Europe (far) after Germany and Poland. But you're just 10 million. Abandon coal generation. Outright. You'll perform better :)
Kahikatea
+1
Level 76
Sep 25, 2019
Australia has very high electricity use, and generates 85% of its electricity from coal. They also mine a lot of iron ore, which I suspect is energy-intensive.
YantheMan
+1
Level 66
Nov 8, 2016
This was a toughie. I failed to see any real throughline between the countires that came up or didn't, so I gave up.
kalbahamut
+1
Level 82
Nov 8, 2016
I agree it's pretty hard and has gotten harder with the last couple updates, in my opinion.
IBRK
+1
Level 71
Apr 4, 2017
Wow... That was the most random quiz ever... Apart from gulf countries i saw no pattern at all
Malbaby
+3
Level 71
Apr 30, 2017
What about the Vatican with all those candles burning day and night?
michelesol
+2
Level 65
Jan 29, 2018
I'm afraid Estonia being on the list because of their foolish OIL SHALE (kerogen) extraction
Godlike1guys
+1
Level 7
Apr 16, 2018
I'm pretty sure china should be up there, I mean looking up the emissions of china should up there with India at least
kalbahamut
+3
Level 82
Apr 16, 2018
China produces more carbon emissions than any other country, but they also have more people than any other country. India isn't on the list, either.
sillie
+2
Level 77
Aug 7, 2018
Just the idea of them getting even close to that list is scary. The amount of pollution. Ugh, we'd be doomed.
Kahikatea
+2
Level 76
Sep 25, 2019
India's greenhouse gas emissions per capita are actually very low by world standards. Their total emissions are significant despite this, because they have such a huge population.
sillie
+2
Level 77
Aug 7, 2018
Netherlands and Luxembourg are both weird as the only two from Western Europe. Neither is especially cold enough and both are really small what comes to distances. So what do they do to cause them emissions?
Factoriel41
+1
Level 52
Aug 29, 2018
I was also very surprised to see them, I thought they were pretty ecologist.
Sifhraven
+2
Level 67
Jan 5, 2019
Only thing I can think of for the netherlands is how big they are in the shipping industry (especially considering how small the country is) It has the biggest port in europe and from 1962 until 2004 it was the world's busiest port.
cornflakesfu
+1
Level 86
Aug 7, 2018
I guessed all the wrong -stans :(
WanderingWalrus
+1
Level 78
Aug 10, 2018
Surprised to see Australia. My wife is Australian and they all constantly talk about how green Australia is.
Relox84
+3
Level 70
May 10, 2020
Australia mines a lot of coal
Malbaby
+1
Level 71
Aug 11, 2018
The problem with these statistics is that it is leaning towards low population and reasonable access to produced goods. e.g. if you had a country of 5 people, who owned 2 cars and had a few electrical appliances etc. you would head this list.
WanderingWalrus
+3
Level 78
Aug 11, 2018
But Andorra, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Monaco, Vatican and Nauru etc are not present.
mrnafe
+1
Level 82
Aug 12, 2018
Not sure what the people wanting a pattern expect you to do with this quiz? Interesting subject I reckon. I plumped for city states and middle east mostly. Didn't do very well mind.
Sifhraven
+1
Level 67
Jan 5, 2019
That is like asking you what you expect him to do with the quiz because you didnt do very well. People arent asking to change anything, they are merely stating that they had a tough time recognizing a pattern (because seeing a pattern usually helps a bit with getting more correct answers)
IsleAuHaulte
+2
Level 89
Aug 16, 2018
I've never come close to bombing a quiz like this, better than only 9%. Unless, of course, I opened a soccer quiz by accident. Even if I hadn't failed to see "per capita" I doubt I would've cracked 50%.
Milezinator
+1
Level 71
Oct 1, 2018
Can't believe the Netherlands is on here, given how famous they are for windmills
kalbahamut
+4
Level 82
Oct 1, 2018
Those windmills mostly run on diesel.
tourwoorden
+2
Level 70
Oct 1, 2018
Haha, windmills aren't wind turbines, which shows on this quiz... and as mentioned above, the Netherlands are densely populated. Also, there's not many opportunities for sustainable energy. Wind turbines do not generate a lot of electricity and people don't want to live nearby them. Solar cells also generate less power under the Dutch clouds, and there's no mountain range to build dams. Still, as in every developed country, the change number is green...
Sifhraven
+1
Level 67
Jan 5, 2019
Windmills running on diesel hahaha that made me laugh.
joedimaggio
+1
Level 72
Oct 1, 2018
Being on this list is sad (or lame). Hopefully Switzerland we aren't here ! But we still have to improve ourselves... Our glaciers aren't well, parts of mountains are slowly collapsing due to permafrost melting, and dry summers like the last one are very bad for our rivers.
unknown2000
+1
Level 48
Oct 1, 2018
This was a good one! Got 17/21, I literally guessed every other island but not Trinidad and Tobago.
Soph1
+1
Level 49
Oct 2, 2018
I wonder how it's changed now that it's 2018
tralalalalala
+1
Level 47
Nov 28, 2018
accept US for united states
kalbahamut
+3
Level 82
Nov 29, 2018
Type USA and you'll get it.
mf3
+4
Level 87
Oct 14, 2020
I wonder what makes Palau stand out so completely from the other small Pacific island states -- at least SEVEN times as much CO2 per capita? The Pacific island nations all use diesel for electric generation, and don't really manufacture anything. Their fishing fleets are probably similar in energy use.
ing
+1
Level 72
Oct 19, 2020
Actually, I'm more intrigued as to how 27% actually guessed Palau (as of now).
vermiciousknid
+1
Level 88
Jan 27, 2021
Towards the end I was desperately trying small island countries and happened on Palau with just a few seconds left.
OfficerDibble
+1
Level 80
Mar 24, 2021
I don't know, but whatever they're doing, they should give it a rest.
Historyman0
+1
Level 38
Jan 27, 2021
what is emission?! i mean, does emission even exist? i think not
ruftytufty
+2
Level 79
Jan 28, 2021
you're thinking of omission
Ishaan7
+1
Level 57
Jul 24, 2021
Very surprised how Iceland made this list. 100% of their energy is obtained from renewable sources - Geothermal & Hydro.
Quizmaster
+6
Level ∞
Jun 6, 2023
I have to wonder what the heck Australia is even doing. They somehow emitted more CO2/capita than the U.S. in 2021 despite possibly the harshest lockdown in the free world and a warm weather climate. Brutal.
maur85
+1
Level 72
Jul 16, 2023
Just guessing, but possibly air conditioning? According to the link below, coal burning accounts for 75% of the country's electricity production, and the more people are stuck indoors the more they're going to use it.

https://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/energy/overview#:~:text=Australia's%20primary%20energy%20consumption%20is,around%20(2%20per%20cent).

Ponderosa
+1
Level 86
Jun 6, 2023
Aha! So Canadians are the polluters! Us clean, green Americans look down on you filthy carbon fiends to the north! lmao
brandybuck96
+1
Level 83
Jun 7, 2023
Per capita perhaps, but not in total. And the difference per capita isn't that significant.
Azerk
+1
Level 64
Jun 7, 2023
I got Estonia at the last second...surprised it's even on the list
MarianePoli
+1
Level 57
Jul 16, 2023
Forgot Kazakhstan ¬¬ but Seychelles I would have never guessed.
quizzicalguy
+1
Level 65
Jul 17, 2023
This is an interesting grouping of nations. I wonder how much flight per capita influences these numbers. I guess I don't even know what percentage of transportation related CO2 output comes from air travel/shipping. But it seems like Seychelles CO2 output from road vehicles would be miniscule, yet outsized for flying in necessities.
IsleAuHaulte
+1
Level 89
Aug 29, 2023
If this is changed to "is responsible for the emission" instead of "emits" within country, islands in the middle of the Pacific that have everything shipped to them in low volume ships would jump dramatically I would think. I know the U.S. and others still import a large percentage of their crap, but giant cargo ships going directly from point to point are more efficient by ton of goods (AKA crap) than smaller freighters island hopping for a few people.
Dadosh
+1
Level 65
Apr 15, 2024
The more CO2 the better. All my homie love CO2
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