The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of a country is the market value of all the final goods and services produced within a country’s borders.
For the most part, it is one of the most widely used indicators to measure the size and the performance of a country’s economy. GDP per capita simply divides the GDP by the size of the population. It is a measure of a country’s economic output per person and serves as an indicator of the average standard of living and economic well-being of each person. In this instance, the data is adjusted for purchasing power parity.
Energy use refers to the use of primary energy before transformation to other end-use fuels, which is equal to indigenous production plus imports and stock changes.
The relationship between GDP per capita and energy use is generally positive, meaning that countries with higher GDP per capita tend to use more energy per person. This is because greater economic activity and affluence typically lead to increased consumption of goods and services, which require energy for their production, transportation, and use.
There are no rich countries that use relatively low amounts of energy and there are no countries using high amounts of energy, that are not relatively rich.
Mapping the two against each other indicates how efficiently a country uses energy to generate economic output: countries above the trend use higher amounts than average to generate economic output; those below use relatively lower amounts of energy to generate wealth.
T&T and Guyana are two outliers from the trend. T&T has traditionally been one of the highest income countries in the Caricom. But it also consumes the most energy, consuming roughly 10 times as much energy as the regional average. This is largely due to heavy industry in the oil and gas sector, along with the petrochemical sector, iron and steel and cement sectors. Also, low electricity costs lead to high demand from commercial and domestic users.
Guyana on the other hand has ramped up production of its oil and gas and has begun earning significant revenue which contributes to stellar GDP growth.
Guyana’s relatively small population size means their GDP per capita will also grow significantly, and it is now the largest in the region. This GDP growth has been driven by the production and export of oil offshore rather than the development of energy consuming industries onshore, hence the high levels of GDP per capita with still relatively low levels of energy consumption in the overall economy.
As the economy grows and new industries are created, the expectation is that Guyana’s primary energy consumption will also increase rapidly.
Energy efficiency will be a major topic of discussion at the Energy Chamber’s Caribbean Sustainable Energy Conference on June 2 to 4, 2025.
