U.S. metro electricity rankings
Four ways to rank America's 25 largest metros by their electric grid. Each ranking is computed from the same canonical dataset: U.S. Census V2025 populations, state-weighted EIA retail-sales demand, and EPA eGRID 2023 subregion grid mixes. The full per-metro dataset is downloadable as a CSV.
Which U.S. metros use the most electricity?
Annual electricity demand by metro, weighted by state per-capita usage. The biggest power consumers in absolute terms.
Which U.S. metros would need the most nuclear reactors?
How many AP1000-class reactors it would take to cover each metro's full annual demand. A direct read of how big the energy ask actually is.
Which U.S. metros already run on the most nuclear power?
Share of each metro's grid that comes from nuclear today, based on EPA eGRID 2023 subregion data. The cities that are already there.
Which U.S. metros have the lowest-CO2 electricity supply?
CO2 emissions per MWh of electricity generated, by metro. The cleanest grids today — driven mostly by hydro, nuclear, and a low coal share.
Download the dataset
The full per-metro dataset feeding these rankings — population, demand, reactors needed, grid mix, CO2 — as one CSV. Use it, cite it, link back to reactfaq.com.