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Niccolo Conte
2025-07-02 10:34:00
www.visualcapitalist.com
Charted: The Growth of Global Data Center Capacity (2005–2025)
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Key Takeaways
- Global data center capacity has grown fivefold between 2005 and 2025
- Data centers consume about 485 terawatt-hours of electricity globally, representing 1.7% of global electricity demand
As digital infrastructure continues to expand rapidly, data centers have seen explosive growth in demand and capacity globally.
The growth has been especially pronounced over the last decade, with cloud computing and AI driving the demand for data storage and infrastructure.
This chart visualizes the installed data center capacity worldwide from 2005 to 2025 (estimated), using data from the International Energy Agency (IEA).
The Soaring Demand for Data Center
In 2005, global installed data center capacity stood at 21.4 gigawatts (GW). As of 2025, that figure stands at an estimated 114 gigawatts—up more than fivefold in 20 years.
| Year | Global Installed Data Centre Capacity (GW) | Annual Growth Rate |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 21.4 | – |
| 2006 | 23.8 | 11.2% |
| 2007 | 24.8 | 4.2% |
| 2008 | 25.9 | 4.4% |
| 2009 | 26.9 | 3.9% |
| 2010 | 28.0 | 4.1% |
| 2011 | 29.0 | 3.6% |
| 2012 | 29.7 | 2.4% |
| 2013 | 30.5 | 2.7% |
| 2014 | 31.3 | 2.6% |
| 2015 | 32.9 | 5.1% |
| 2016 | 35.3 | 7.3% |
| 2017 | 38.1 | 7.9% |
| 2018 | 43.5 | 14.2% |
| 2019 | 51.6 | 18.6% |
| 2020 | 59.7 | 15.7% |
| 2021 | 66.9 | 12.1% |
| 2022 | 74.1 | 10.8% |
| 2023 | 83.2 | 12.3% |
| 2024 | 97.1 | 16.7% |
| 2025e | 114.3 | 17.7% |
Until 2018, global data center capacity was growing at a modest rate annually. However, capacity installations have accelerated recently, with double-digit growth every year from 2018 to 2025.
Data center capacity grew fastest in 2019 at 18.6%, and 2025 is set to be the second-best year with an estimated 17.7% increase in installed capacity.
Furthermore, the demand for data centers is likely to continue rising with AI usage, given that they store the data used to train AI models and provide the computational power used to deploy them.
Growing Electricity Demand from Data Centers
Data centers are energy-intensive and use large amounts of electricity to run servers and cool their infrastructure.
Today, data center facilities consume about 485 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity, representing 1.7% of global demand. By 2030, electricity consumption for data centers is projected to reach around 945 TWh.
Regionally, the U.S. remains the dominant data center hub globally, both in terms of installed capacity and electricity usage, followed by China and Europe. The U.S. and China are also projected to be the biggest drivers of data center electricity consumption through 2030.
Learn More on the Voronoi App 
For more insights, check out this infographic on how the world is powering its data centers on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.
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