How much of US electricity comes from nuclear power?

Nuclear power made 17.7% of US electricity in 2025. Its share grew from almost nothing in 1960 to 19% by 1990, peaked at 20.6% in 2001, and has slipped slowly since as total generation grew. The 2025 figures are preliminary.

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Key facts

Measure: Share of US electricity generation (%). Written from the data below.

  • The latest figure, for 2025, is 17.7%.
  • That is up 17.7 percentage points from 0% in 1949.
  • The highest was 20.6% in 2001.
  • The lowest was 0%, first reached in 1949.

Source and date

Source
U.S. Energy Information Administration, Monthly Energy Review (Table 7.2a)
License
Public domain (U.S. government work)
Data as of
Published

Citation

Chartly. “How much of US electricity comes from nuclear power?” Chart. Data: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Monthly Energy Review (Table 7.2a), https://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly/ (data as of December 31, 2025). https://chart.ly/charts/nuclear-share-of-us-electricity (accessed October 15, 2026).

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The data

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The file has the numbers in this table, with the source, license and date. Please credit the source and Chartly.

Year Share of US electricity generation (%)
1949 0
1950 0
1951 0
1952 0
1953 0
1954 0
1955 0
1956 0
1957 0
1958 0
1959 0
1960 0.1
1961 0.2
1962 0.3
1963 0.3
1964 0.3
1965 0.3
1966 0.5
1967 0.6
1968 0.9
1969 1
1970 1.4
1971 2.4
1972 3.1
1973 4.5
1974 6.1
1975 9
1976 9.4
1977 11.8
1978 12.5
1979 11.3
1980 11
1981 11.9
1982 12.6
1983 12.7
1984 13.5
1985 15.5
1986 16.6
1987 17.7
1988 19.5
1989 17.8
1990 19
1991 19.9
1992 20.1
1993 19.1
1994 19.7
1995 20.1
1996 19.6
1997 18
1998 18.6
1999 19.7
2000 19.8
2001 20.6
2002 20.2
2003 19.7
2004 19.9
2005 19.3
2006 19.4
2007 19.4
2008 19.6
2009 20.2
2010 19.6
2011 19.3
2012 19
2013 19.4
2014 19.5
2015 19.5
2016 19.8
2017 19.9
2018 19.3
2019 19.6
2020 19.7
2021 19
2022 18.2
2023 18.5
2024 18.1
2025 17.7

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