Gas
Electricity from natural gas turbines and combined-cycle plants.
At this rate, one death corresponds to about 18,000–54,000 people's annual electricity.
Deaths per terawatt-hour
This scale is logarithmic: each step to the right is ten times the previous one, so the visual distance understates how much larger the fossil numbers really are.
counted deaths · modeled deaths
The small grey figure under each source is the same rate turned human: roughly how many people’s yearly electricity corresponds to one death. Coal, about 700–6,000 people; solar, a few million.
The figures as a table
| Source | Low | High | Modeled | 1 death per |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gas | 2.8 | 8.5 | 90% | 18k–54k people |
Deaths
2.8–8.5 deaths/TWh
Our World in Data, What are the safest and cleanest sources of energy?CO₂
410–650 gCO₂eq/kWh
IPCC AR5 WGIII Annex III lifecycle emissions mediansLand
2–8 km²/TWh/yr
UNECE lifecycle assessment of electricity generation optionsCost
45–108 USD/MWh
Lazard LCOE+ 2026, version 19.0On the upper bound — The 2.8 low bound is OWID's published figure. The upper bound is a site-derived caution estimate scaling OWID's reasoning that newer research suggests higher impacts; it is not itself a published number.
The uncounted cost — priced at the central value of a statistical life ($14.1M), Gas's death toll is worth about $39 per MWh generated — against a market price of $78/MWh. That cost is on no electricity bill. Value of a life →
How it kills
Air pollution from combustion — lower than coal or oil per unit of electricity — plus accidents in gas extraction and pipelines and occasional plant explosions.
What dominates the number
Modeled combustion-pollution deaths dominate; accidents are a small share. Upstream methane leakage is a climate concern but not counted here as a death mechanism.
What the estimate does not capture
Site conditions, country-specific controls, labor practices, reliability, storage, and long-tail waste questions are outside this coefficient.