FIGURE 30.1 Global Comparison: Energy Consumption Per Capita, 1980 By 1980, the United States consumed more energy than most other industrialized nations, with a per capita rate of consumption that was more than double that of Britain, France, and Japan and nearly twice as high as that of the Soviet Union. A number of factors influence a nation’s energy consumption, including standard of living, climate, size of landmass, population distribution, availability and price of energy, and government policies.