Only 29% of Bangladeshis cook with clean fuels, even as electricity reaches 99.5%

In 2024, 99.5% of Bangladeshis had access to electricity, but only 29% primarily used clean fuels and technologies for cooking. In 2010 the two figures were 55% and 12%.

29%

Share of the population primarily using clean cooking fuels and technologies, 2024 (up from 12% in 2010).

Clean cooking has improved by about one percentage point a year since 2018 (22% that year), a slower climb than the near-universal electrification achieved in the past decade. On the World Bank’s figures, roughly seven in ten people still rely mainly on fuels outside the clean category. Under the WHO guidelines used for this indicator, kerosene does not count as clean.

The gap suggests that extending the grid and shifting kitchens to clean fuels are separate tasks: electrification has largely been completed, while clean cooking would need its own policy attention, such as affordable fuel supply and cookers.

One caveat: the series is an estimate compiled by the Energy Progress Report, and it describes a household’s primary cooking fuel, so some “clean” households may still use traditional stoves too.

Source: Tracking SDG 7: The Energy Progress Report, via World Bank WDI (EG.CFT.ACCS.ZS, EG.ELC.ACCS.ZS).