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Visualizing U.S. Consumption of Fuel and Materials per Capita

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U.S. Consumption of Fuel and Materials per Capita

Visualizing U.S. Consumption of Fuel and Materials per Capita

Wealthy countries consume massive amounts of natural resources per capita, and Americans are no exception.

According to data from the National Mining Association, each American needs more than 39,000 pounds (17,700 kg) of minerals and fossil fuels annually to maintain their standard of living.

Materials We Need to Build

Every building around us and every sidewalk we walk on is made of sand, steel, and cement.

As a result, these materials lead consumption per capita in the United States. On average, each person in America drives the demand of over 10,000 lbs of stone and around 7,000 lbs of sand and gravel per year.

Material/Fossil FuelPounds Per Person
Stone10,643
Natural Gas9,456
Sand, Gravel7,088
Petroleum Products 6,527
Coal 3,290
Cement724
Other Nonmetals569
Salt359
Iron Ore239
Phosphate Rock 166
Sulfur66
Potash49
Soda Ash36
Bauxite (Aluminum)24
Other Metals 21
Copper13
Lead11
Zinc6
Manganese4
Total 39,291

The construction industry is a major contributor to the U.S. economy.

Crushed stone, sand, gravel, and other construction aggregates represent half of the industrial minerals produced in the country, resulting in $29 billion in revenue per year.

Also on the list are crucial hard metals such as copper, aluminum, iron ore, and of course many rarer metals used in smaller quantities each year. These rarer metals can make a big economic difference even when their uses are more concentrated and isolatedโ€”for example, palladium (primarily used in catalytic converters) costs $54 million per tonne.

Fuels Powering our Lives

Despite ongoing efforts to fight climate change and reduce carbon emissions, each person in the U.S. uses over 19,000 lbs of fossil fuels per year.

U.S. primary energy consumption by energy source, 2021

Gasoline is the most consumed petroleum product in the United States.

In 2021, finished motor gasoline consumption averaged about 369 million gallons per day, equal to about 44% of total U.S. petroleum use. Distillate fuel oil (20%), hydrocarbon gas liquids (17%), and jet fuel (7%) were the next most important uses.

Reliance on Other Countries

Over the past three decades, the United States has become reliant on foreign sources to meet domestic demand for minerals and fossil fuels. Today, the country is 100% import-reliant for 17 mineral commodities and at least 50% for 30 others.

In order to reduce the dependency on other countries, namely China, the Biden administration has been working to diversify supply chains in critical minerals. This includes strengthening alliances with other countries such as Australia, India, and Japan.

However, questions still remain about how soon these policies can make an impact, and the degree to which they can ultimately help localize and diversify supply chains.

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Urbanization

Ranked: The 20 Most Air-Polluted Cities on Earth

Using 2022 average PM2.5 concentrations, we rank the most polluted cities in the world.

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Ranked: The 20 Most Air-Polluted Cities on Earth

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), almost the entire global population (99%) breathes air that exceeds WHO air quality limits.

In the above map, we use 2022 average PM2.5 concentrations from IQAirโ€™s World Air Quality Report to visualize the most air-polluted major cities in the world.

Worldโ€™s Air Pollution Hot Spots

As one of the standard air quality indicators used by the WHO, the PM2.5 concentration refers to the quantity of fine particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or less in a given volume of air.

Fine particulate matter that is this small can penetrate the lungs when inhaled and enter the bloodstream, affecting all major organs.

Based on annual average PM2.5 concentrations (ฮผg/mยณ) in 2022, here are the most polluted cities in the world.

RankCity 2022 average PM2.5 concentration (ฮผg/mยณ)
1๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ฐ Lahore, Pakistan97.4
2๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ Hotan, China94.3
3๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ Bhiwadi, India92.7
4๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ Delhi, India92.6
5๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ฐ Peshawar, Pakistan91.8
6๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ Darbhanga, India90.3
7๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ Asopur, India90.2
8๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿ‡ฉ N'Djamena, Chad89.7
9๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ New Delhi, India89.1
10๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ Patna, India88.9
11๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ Ghaziabad, India88.6
12๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ Dharuhera, India87.8
13๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ถ Baghdad, Iraq86.7
14๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ Chapra, India85.9
15๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ Muzaffarnagar, India85.5
16๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ฐ Faisalabad, Pakistan84.5
17๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ Greater Noida, India83.2
18๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ Bahadurgarh, India82.2
19๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ Faridabad, India79.7
20๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ Muzaffarpur, India79.2

With numbers these high, the concentration of some or all of the following pollutants are at dangerous levels in these cities:

  • Ground-level ozone
  • Particulate matter
  • Carbon monoxide
  • Sulfur dioxide
  • Nitrogen dioxide

At the top of the list, Lahore in Pakistan has a combination of high vehicle and industrial emissions, as well as smoke from brick kilns, crop residue, general waste burning, and dust from construction sites.

Air pollution levels can also be impacted by practices such as large-scale tree removal in order to build new roads and buildings.

As a result of its growing population and rapidly expanding industrial sector, India has 14 cities on the list, outpacing China, formerly considered the world’s number one air pollution source.

The only African country on the list, Chad, experienced severe dust storms in 2022 that resulted in an 18% increase in PM2.5 concentration in 2022 compared to the previous year.

The Cost of Poor Air Quality

Poor air quality is one of the leading causes of early deaths worldwide, just behind high blood pressure, tobacco use, and poor diet.

According to a 2020 study by the Health Effects Institute, 6.67 million people died as a result of air pollution in 2019.

In addition to the millions of premature deaths each year, the global cost of health damages associated with air pollution currently sits at $8.1 trillion.

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Urbanization

Visualizing the World’s Largest Steel-Producing Countries

China has dominated global steel production the past few decades, but how did the country get here, and is its production growth over?

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cropped infographic of global steel production by country in 2022

The Largest Steel-Producing Countries: Visualized

Steel is a critical component of modern industry and economy, essential for the construction of buildings, automobiles, and many other appliances and infrastructure used in our daily lives.

This graphic uses data from the World Steel Association to visualize the world’s top steel-producing countries, and highlights China’s ascent to the top, as it now makes up more than half of the world’s steel production.

The State of Global Steel Production

Global steel production in 2022 reached 1,878 million tonnes, barely surpassing the pre-pandemic production of 1,875 million tonnes in 2019.

Country2022 Production (in million tonnes)Annual Production ChangeGlobal Share
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ China1013.0-2.0%53.9%
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ India124.85.3%6.6%
๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต Japan89.2-7.9%4.8%
๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ United States80.5-6.5%4.3%
๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡บ Russia71.5-5.8%3.8%
๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ‡ท South Korea65.9-6.9%3.5%
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช Germany36.8-8.8%2.0%
๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿ‡ท Tรผrkiye35.1-15.0%1.9%
๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ท Brazil34.0-6.5%1.8%
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ท Iran30.66.8%1.6%
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น Italy21.6-13.0%1.1%
๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿ‡ผ Taiwan20.7-12.1%1.1%
๐Ÿ‡ป๐Ÿ‡ณ Vietnam20.0-15.0%1.1%
๐Ÿ‡ฒ๐Ÿ‡ฝ Mexico18.2-1.9%1.0%
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ฉ Indonesia15.68.3%0.8%
Rest of World201.0-11.2%10.7%
World Total1878.5-3.9%100.0%

2022’s steel production marked a significant reduction compared to the post-pandemic rebound of 1,960 million tonnes in 2021, with a year-over-year decline of 4.2%โ€“the largest drop since 2009, and prior to that, 1991.

This decline was spread across many of the world’s top steel producers, with only three of the top fifteen countries, India, Iran, and Indonesia, increasing their yearly production. Most of the other top steel-producing countries saw annual production declines of more than 5%, with Turkey, Italy, Taiwan, and Vietnam’s production all declining by double digits.

Even the world’s top steel-producing nation, China, experienced a modest 2% decline, which due to the country’s large production amounted to a decline of 19.8 million tonnes, more than many other nations produce in a year.

Despite India, the world’s second-largest steel producer, increasing its production by 5.3%, the country’s output still amounts to just over one-tenth of the steel produced by China.

China’s Meteoric Rise in Steel Production

Although China dominates the world’s steel production with more than a 54% share today, this hasn’t always been the case.

In 1967, the World Steel Association’s first recorded year of steel production figures, China only produced an estimated 14 million tonnes, making up barely 3% of global output. At that time, the U.S. and the USSR were competing as the world’s top steel producers at 115 and 102 million tonnes respectively, followed by Japan at 62 million tonnes.

Almost three decades later in 1996, China had successively overtaken Russia, the U.S., and Japan to become the top steel-producing nation with 101 million tonnes of steel produced that year.

The early 2000s marked a period of rapid growth for China, with consistent double-digit percentage increases in steel production each year.

The Recent Decline in China’s Steel Production

Since the early 2000s, China’s average annual growth in steel production has slowed to 3.4% over the last decade (2013-2022), a considerable decline compared to the previous decade’s (2003-2012) 15.2% average annual growth rate.

The past couple of years have seen China’s steel production decline, with 2021 and 2022 marking the first time the country’s production fell for two consecutive years in a row.

While it’s unlikely China will relinquish its position as the top steel-producing nation anytime soon, it remains to be seen whether this recent decline marks the beginning of a new trend or just a brief deviation from the country’s consistent production growth.

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