In the Dark — Data
OECD residential electricity prices ranked cheapest to most expensive, with generation mix and degree of market liberalisation. The white dot on each bar shows how liberalised that country's electricity market is — high means privately owned and deregulated, low means state or publicly owned. The pattern speaks for itself.
Sources: GlobalPetrolPrices.com (Q1 2025–Q1 2026), Eurostat H2 2024, US EIA, Ember Global Electricity Review 2024, IEA World Energy Balances 2024. Liberalisation scores: OECD PMR electricity sector indicators 2023/24. Prices in USD at current exchange rates. Generation mix 2023–24. Classification of France, Sweden, Finland, Austria and Switzerland reflects effective ownership concentration rather than formal market status.
Across 30 markets, the household price of electricity tracks how liberalised the market is, with a correlation of 0.78. It barely tracks the share of renewables (−0.09) or the share of fossil fuels (0.00).
Correlation isn't proof of cause, and five countries are scored on who effectively owns their market rather than its formal status, as the source note explains. The pattern is the one In the Dark follows: the fuel matters least, and who owns the system matters most.