China vs India: Carbon dioxide emissions by income level

China

12.29 billion tonnes

in 2024

India

3.19 billion tonnes

in 2024

China rank

1st

India rank

3rd

Carbon dioxide emissions by income level over time

China currently reports 12.29 billion tonnes against 3.19 billion tonnes in India, a difference of 9.10 billion tonnes.

That makes China's figure about 3.8 times India's.

The two have swapped places 5 times across 118 shared years of data; in 1907 it was India ahead.

China ranks 1st and India ranks 3rd of 215 countries.

Indicator: Carbon dioxide emissions by income level
Unit: tonnes
Source: Global Carbon Budget (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage: 216 places, 23,583 data points, 1750–2024
Last refreshed: 07 August 2026

Annual total emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂), excluding land-use change, measured in tonnes.