What is the average carbon footprint per person?

About 4.7 tonnes of CO2 a year worldwide. Australia averages 15.1 t, the United States 14.5 t, Germany 7.9 t, the United Kingdom 5.5 t, Sweden 3.8 t and India 1.9 t (Our World in Data, territorial emissions).

How many trees offset 1 tonne of CO2?

About 45 trees absorbing for a year, at 45 trees per tonne. Put differently, one tree would need 45 years. Planting is cheap; the carbon stays out of the air only as long as the trees stand.

Is 1 tonne of CO2 a year a lot?

1 tonne of CO2 a year is more than 9% of the world's people emit, against a global mean of 4.7 tonnes per person. It is 21% of the world mean, 7% of the American figure, and would take about 45 trees a year to absorb.

Percentile

of the world's people emit less than 1 tonne of CO2 a year

1 tonne of CO2 = 1.1 US tons a year

1 tonne of CO2 by group

Percentile

Normal approximation, mean 4.7 t, SD 2.8 t, as in our carbon test
Group	Mean	Emit less than you	1 in X
World	4.7 t	9%	1 in 11

Per person, by country

Territorial CO2 emissions divided by population, Our World in Data
Country	Tonnes per person	1 tonne is
World	4.7	21% of it
Australia	15.1	7% of it
United States	14.5	7% of it
Canada	14.2	7% of it
Japan	8.7	11% of it
Germany	7.9	13% of it
China	7.6	13% of it
Norway	7.5	13% of it
United Kingdom	5.5	18% of it
France	4.6	22% of it
Sweden	3.8	26% of it
Brazil	2.3	43% of it
India	1.9	53% of it

Percentile is the share of the world's people who emit less than this a year. “1 in X” counts the rarer side: people at or beyond this value above the median, at or under it below. Percentiles are estimated from a normal distribution with mean 4.7 t and SD 2.8 t, which understates the long right tail.

What this means

Absorbing 1 tonne takes about 45 trees growing for a full year, at the 45 trees per tonne our carbon test uses. The rule of thumb is generous; trees are slow and offsets are a crowded market.
The closest national average is India at 1.9 t. An American averages 14.5 t, an Indian 1.9 t, so 1 tonne is 53% the Indian figure.
Country figures are territorial emissions divided by population: power stations, cement works and all, not a household's shopping. A personal calculator counts consumption and misses imports. Neither is precise to the tonne.
Emissions are skewed, with a long tail of frequent flyers and large houses. A normal curve is a rough fit, and the richest 10% of people cause about half of all emissions.

Questions

Is 1 tonne of CO2 a year a lot?: 1 tonne a year is more than 9% of the world's people emit, against a global mean of 4.7 tonnes per person. That is under the world mean, in the range of India, Brazil and Sweden.
What is the average carbon footprint per person?: About 4.7 tonnes of CO2 a year worldwide. Australia averages 15.1 t, the United States 14.5 t, Germany 7.9 t, the United Kingdom 5.5 t, Sweden 3.8 t and India 1.9 t (Our World in Data, territorial emissions).
How many trees offset 1 tonne of CO2?: About 45 trees absorbing for a year, at 45 trees per tonne. Put differently, one tree would need 45 years. Planting is cheap; the carbon stays out of the air only as long as the trees stand.

Source: Per-person CO2 by country: Our World in Data, Global Carbon Budget 2024, territorial fossil and industry emissions. Global distribution approximated as normal with mean 4.7 t and SD 2.8 t, as in our carbon test. Percentiles are estimated from a normal distribution with mean 4.7 t and SD 2.8 t, which understates the long right tail.

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