Global Cooling Access Dashboard
Billions Exposed to Heat
At Risk of Lacking Sustainable Cooling
In 2025, over 1 billion people – the rural and urban poor in 77 countries – face dangerous heat exposure and risk not accessing viable cooling solutions. A further 2.4 billion face affordability barriers and limited purchasing options. This dashboard tracks populations at risk of lacking cooling access from 2000 to 2025 and projects to 2030.
The Rural Poor lack access to electricity and live in extreme poverty. Many are likely to engage in subsistence farming but lack access to an intact cold chain that would enable them to sell their products further afield at a higher price. There may also be a lack of medical cold chains in rural poor communities, putting lives at risk from spoiled medicines and vaccines.
The Urban Poor have limited or no access to electricity, and whose quality of housing is likely too poor to protect them from extreme heat. Their income may not be sufficient to purchase or run a fan. They may own or have access to a refrigerator, but intermittent electricity supplies may mean that food often spoils and there is a high risk of poor nutrition or food poisoning.
The Lower-Middle Income represent an increasingly affluent lower-middle-income class that is on the brink of purchasing the lowest first-cost air conditioner or refrigerator on the market. Limited purchasing choices available to this group favour cooling devices that are likely affordable, but inefficient.
The Middle Income typically own an air conditioner and a refrigerator. They may be able to afford more efficient ones. They may also be able to move to better-designed, more efficient housing and working environments, where they might also make conscious choices to minimise the use of or not own an air-conditioning unit.
The analysis assesses 54 high-impact countries for access to cooling determined by previous Chilling Prospects analyses, as well as high-temperature regions of 23 countries not considered to be high impact, but with localized cooling access risks. High-impact countries are those expected to experience sustained high temperatures with significant populations at high risk from a lack of access to cooling due to poverty and electricity access gaps. For a full list, see here.
Cooling Risk Varies Sharply
Across World Regions
Sub-Saharan Africa carries the largest absolute high-risk burden. In Western Asia and Northern Africa high-risk numbers are rising at the faster rate. East and Southeast Asia has seen the sharpest declines by far.
The Rural Poor lack access to electricity and live in extreme poverty. Many are likely to engage in subsistence farming but lack access to an intact cold chain that would enable them to sell their products further afield at a higher price. There may also be a lack of medical cold chains in rural poor communities, putting lives at risk from spoiled medicines and vaccines.
The Urban Poor have limited or no access to electricity, and whose quality of housing is likely too poor to protect them from extreme heat. Their income may not be sufficient to purchase or run a fan. They may own or have access to a refrigerator, but intermittent electricity supplies may mean that food often spoils and there is a high risk of poor nutrition or food poisoning.
The Lower-Middle Income represent an increasingly affluent lower-middle-income class that is on the brink of purchasing the lowest first-cost air conditioner or refrigerator on the market. Limited purchasing choices available to this group favour cooling devices that are likely affordable, but inefficient.
The Middle Income typically own an air conditioner and a refrigerator. They may be able to afford more efficient ones. They may also be able to move to better-designed, more efficient housing and working environments, where they might also make conscious choices to minimise the use of or not own an air-conditioning unit.
The analysis assesses 54 high-impact countries for access to cooling determined by previous Chilling Prospects analyses, as well as high-temperature regions of 23 countries not considered to be high impact, but with localized cooling access risks. High-impact countries are those expected to experience sustained high temperatures with significant populations at high risk from a lack of access to cooling due to poverty and electricity access gaps. For a full list, see here.
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Its Cooling Risk Profile 
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The Rural Poor lack access to electricity and live in extreme poverty. Many are likely to engage in subsistence farming but lack access to an intact cold chain that would enable them to sell their products further afield at a higher price. There may also be a lack of medical cold chains in rural poor communities, putting lives at risk from spoiled medicines and vaccines.
The Urban Poor have limited or no access to electricity, and whose quality of housing is likely too poor to protect them from extreme heat. Their income may not be sufficient to purchase or run a fan. They may own or have access to a refrigerator, but intermittent electricity supplies may mean that food often spoils and there is a high risk of poor nutrition or food poisoning.
The Lower-Middle Income represent an increasingly affluent lower-middle-income class that is on the brink of purchasing the lowest first-cost air conditioner or refrigerator on the market. Limited purchasing choices available to this group favour cooling devices that are likely affordable, but inefficient.
The Middle Income typically own an air conditioner and a refrigerator. They may be able to afford more efficient ones. They may also be able to move to better-designed, more efficient housing and working environments, where they might also make conscious choices to minimise the use of or not own an air-conditioning unit.
The analysis assesses 54 high-impact countries for access to cooling determined by previous Chilling Prospects analyses, as well as high-temperature regions of 23 countries not considered to be high impact, but with localized cooling access risks. High-impact countries are those expected to experience sustained high temperatures with significant populations at high risk from a lack of access to cooling due to poverty and electricity access gaps. For a full list, see here.