Infrastructure comparison tab

India electricity and toilets: a 2000–2024 Zeitraffer

A sourced time-lapse view of three basic-service indicators: people with access to electricity, people using at least basic sanitation, and people still practicing open defecation. The data are World Bank indicator series for India; sanitation and open-defecation values are based on the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme methodology used in WDI.

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Stylized portrait illustration used on the archive homepage
Electricity access
60.3% → 99.5%

World Bank India electricity access series from 2000 to latest available 2023.

Basic sanitation
14.7% → 83.4%

People using at least basic sanitation services, 2000 to 2024.

Open defecation
73.2% → 6.7%

People practicing open defecation, 2000 to 2024. Lower is better.

Animation window
2000–2023

The Zeitraffer uses 2000–2023 because all three series overlap there. Sanitation also has 2024 values.

Zeitraffer / time-lapse

Slide or press play to watch the rates change

This imitates the style of animated development GIFs, but keeps the underlying values visible and source-backed.

2000
India, % of population
Access to electricity60.3%
Using at least basic sanitation14.7%
Practicing open defecation73.2%
2000–2023
Chart

Electricity, toilets, and open defecation on one timeline

The chart uses actual annual World Bank API values. I do not interpolate missing values; electricity currently stops at 2023 in the fetched API while sanitation/open-defecation extend to 2024.

Access to electricity At least basic sanitation Open defecation 2014 marker
2000–2014 2014 onward 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 2000 2005 2010 2014 2019 2024 2014 Modi PM 2000: 60.3% 2001: 62.0% 2002: 62.3% 2003: 65.4% 2004: 64.4% 2005: 68.8% 2006: 67.9% 2007: 72.3% 2008: 74.1% 2009: 75.0% 2010: 76.3% 2011: 79.5% 2012: 79.9% 2013: 83.1% 2014: 85.1% 2015: 88.0% 2016: 89.6% 2017: 91.8% 2018: 95.7% 2019: 95.9% 2020: 96.5% 2021: 99.6% 2022: 99.2% 2023: 99.5% 2000: 14.7% 2001: 17.2% 2002: 20.0% 2003: 22.7% 2004: 25.5% 2005: 28.3% 2006: 31.1% 2007: 33.9% 2008: 36.8% 2009: 39.6% 2010: 42.5% 2011: 45.4% 2012: 48.3% 2013: 51.2% 2014: 54.2% 2015: 57.1% 2016: 60.1% 2017: 63.1% 2018: 66.1% 2019: 69.1% 2020: 72.0% 2021: 74.9% 2022: 77.8% 2023: 80.7% 2024: 83.4% 2000: 73.2% 2001: 70.3% 2002: 67.3% 2003: 64.4% 2004: 61.5% 2005: 58.6% 2006: 55.8% 2007: 52.9% 2008: 50.1% 2009: 47.2% 2010: 44.4% 2011: 41.6% 2012: 38.8% 2013: 36.1% 2014: 33.3% 2015: 30.6% 2016: 27.8% 2017: 25.1% 2018: 22.4% 2019: 19.7% 2020: 17.0% 2021: 14.3% 2022: 11.7% 2023: 9.0% 2024: 6.7% Electricity 99.5% (2023) Basic sanitation 83.4% (2024) Open defecation 6.7% (2024)

Interpretation: electricity access approaches near-universal coverage by the early 2020s; sanitation access rises steadily from a very low base; open defecation falls sharply but remains non-zero in the World Bank/JMP series.

Milestone table

YearElectricity accessAt least basic sanitationOpen defecation
200060.3%14.7%73.2%
200568.8%28.3%58.6%
201076.3%42.5%44.4%
201485.1%54.2%33.3%
201995.9%69.1%19.7%
202399.5%80.7%9.0%
2024n/a in World Bank API yet83.4%6.7%
Method

What the indicators mean

Electricity

World Bank indicator EG.ELC.ACCS.ZS: access to electricity as a percentage of India’s population. This is a people-level access series, not a measure of power quality, outages, or per-capita electricity consumption.

Toilets / sanitation

I use SH.STA.BASS.ZS, “people using at least basic sanitation services,” because it is the closest clean international series for toilet/sanitation access. It is not the same as every household owning a private toilet.

Open defecation

I also show SH.STA.ODFC.ZS, “people practicing open defecation.” This directly captures the decline in open defecation and helps avoid pretending that sanitation access and open-defecation elimination are identical.

Source notes

  1. World Bank API: EG.ELC.ACCS.ZS, Access to electricity (% of population), India — values used include 2000 = 60.3%, 2014 = 85.1%, 2023 = 99.5%.
  2. World Bank API: SH.STA.BASS.ZS, People using at least basic sanitation services (% of population), India — values used include 2000 = 14.7%, 2014 = 54.2%, 2024 = 83.4%.
  3. World Bank API: SH.STA.ODFC.ZS, People practicing open defecation (% of population), India — values used include 2000 = 73.2%, 2014 = 33.3%, 2024 = 6.7%.
  4. WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (JMP) — sanitation and open-defecation concepts in World Bank WDI are tied to JMP definitions and methodology.