Annual electricity access rate dataset for Africa from 2000-2021

Tam Kemabonta, Abdulrahman Alsanad, Brighton Mogaka, Nathan Johnson

Accurate and spatially explicit electricity access data are essential for electrification planning and policy evaluation in Africa, yet existing data are often survey-based, infrequent, and temporally inconsistent. This study presents a harmonized Electricity Access Rate (EAR) dataset for Africa spanning 2000-2021, derived from satellite-based nighttime luminosity observations and gridded population data at 1 km² resolution. EARs are estimated at grid-cell level and aggregated to national and subnational administrative units. Validation against the World Bank Global Electrification Database for Sub-Saharan Africa demonstrates strong agreement across multiple luminescence thresholds, with the highest correspondence observed for DN > 7 across both DMSP/OLS and VIIRS nighttime luminosity datasets spanning the study period. The EAR dataset is made publicly available to provide a transparent, reproducible resource for analyzing long-term electrification trends, spatial disparities, and development outcomes across Africa.