Brightlio Blog

The team at Brightlio has compiled a comprehensive list of up-to-date data center and colocation statistics for 2024. In this article, you’ll find hand-picked statistics about:

• The Global Data Center Market
• Data center growth statistics
• Data center industry trends
• The top data center companies and cloud service providers
• Data centers statistics by region, including Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America

Without further ado, let’s see the stats!

Global Data Center Statistics

The global data center market is massive and growing. Let’s dive into some statistics about the market:

1. There are approximately 10,978 data center locations worldwide as of December 2023. (Various: Cloudscene, Datacentermap, Statista)
2. The top 20 countries with the most data centers are the United States (5,388), Germany (522), the U.K. (517), China (449), Canada (336), France (315), Australia (306), Netherlands (300), Russia (255), Japan (219), Italy (168), Mexico (166), Brazil (163), India (152), Poland (143), Hong Kong (122), Singapore (99) New Zealand (81), Spain (81), Indonesia (79). (Various: Cloudscene, Datacentermap, Statista)
3. Data centers consumed 7.4 Gigawatts of power in 2023, a 55% increase from the 4.9 Gigawatts in 2022. (Cushman Wakefield)
4. The electricity used by data centers could power 6,482,400 average American homes. (Carbon Collective)
5. Data centers account for between 1% and 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. (Channel News Asia)
6. The 1st half of 2023 saw the largest amount of construction of data center construction in history in primary markets. (CBRE)
7. The 10 largest data center markets by total power in Megawatts are Northern Virginia, Beijing, Oregon, Phoenix, Shanghai, Dallas, Columbus, Atlanta, Tokyo, and London. (Cushman & Wakefield)
8. The global data center colocation market will reach $131.80 billion by 2030 — a significant increase from 2022’s $57.2 billion. (Techjury)
9. The global data center colocation market will expand expand with a compound annual growth rate of 6.5% from 2021 to 2027. (GlobeNewswire)
10. Equinix is the market share leader in the data center space with a 13% market share. Digital Realty follows 11% and NTT with 6%, rounding out the top biggest largest data center providers. (TechJury)
11. The cloud service providers data center segment will have the highest compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.7% between 2022 and 2030. (Yahoo)
12. The edge data center market will grow from $7.2 billion in 2021 to $19.1 billion by 2026 driven by the growth of online streaming services, and the adoption of IoT. (MarketsandMarkets)
13. The energy application sector of the data center services market is projected to consume more than $8 billion by 2023. (Global Market Insights)
14. Media and entertainment industries are expected to account for 35% of data center consumption in 2023. (Future Market Insights)
15. IBM Cloud has over 46 data centers globally across 9 regions and 27 availability zones. (IBM)
16. The solution segment dominated the revenue shares of data center markets with 77.9% in 2021. (Yahoo)
17. Hyperscale data centers under construction come to a total of 921,458 square meters of data center space and just under 2,000 MW of power. (Research and Markets)
18. Worldwide, the average data center size is 100,000 square meters. (Techjury)
19. China Telecom’s Inner Mongolia Information Park Data Center is the largest data center in the world, with over 10.7 million square feet in space. (Edu Dwar)
20. Google’s Council Bluffs data center in Iowa is the largest data center campus in the world. It costs $5 billion to complete. (Data Center Frontier)
21. Tahoe Reno 1 from Switch is the largest colocation data center in the world at 1.3 million square feet and up to 130 MW of power. (Switch)
22. Switch’s Citadel Campus in Las Vegas, Nevada, is the third-largest data center in the world and the largest data center outside of China. The Tier IV facility is 7,750,015 square feet. (Ranked.com)
23. Data centers account for about 4% of global energy consumption and 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions. (Engie)
24. Cloud data centers consume 3% of the world’s energy. (Exploding Topics)
25. Data center construction reached an all-time high in 2023, with 3,077.8 Megawatts under construction. This is a 46% year-over-year increase. (CBRE)

AI Data Center Statistics

1. Nvidia projects that $1 trillion will be spent on data center upgrades for AI with most of the cost paid by Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta. (Business Insider)
2. About 20% of global data center capacity is being used for AI. (Wall Street Journal)
3. AI data center server infrastructure spend plus operating expenses are projected to reach $76 billion by 2028. (Forbes)
4. AI will shift data center rack power capacities up to 50 kW – 100 kW, up from less than 10 kW in 2023. This will require a shift from air cooling to liquid cooling. (SDXCentral)
5. AI and advanced robotics will increase data center efficiency 30% by 2025 (EY.com)
6. AI is expected to drive $75.3 billion in data center spending by 2028, or about 35% of total market demand. (Cushman & Wakefield)
7. Data center revenue from generative AI is expected to increase at a 58% compound annual growth rate from 2023 to 2028. (CBRE)

Data Center Facts By Region

Not all data centers are the same, and regional resource differences can significantly impact statistics. Here’s the data center industry overview by region, providing an insight into the diversity of data centers worldwide.

Africa

1. Africa accounted for less than 1% of word data center supply in 2022. (Africa CEO Forum)
2. Africa’s data center market is expected to reach $3 billion in revenues by 2025, growing at a combined annual growth rate of 12%. (Turner & Townsend)
3. Africa’s data center market is expected to grow to $5.4 billion, account for 1,355,000 square feet, and consume 267 MW of power by 2027. (Arizton)
4. Teraco Data Environments is Africa’s largest data center operator, with facilities in Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban, South Africa. (Teraco)
5. South Africa dominates the continent’s data center market with a 50% share. (Arizton)
6. South Africa is the number 22 ranked country for data center density, with 61 data centers. (Cloudscene)
7. Africa has 87 colocation centers in 15 countries. South Africa leads the way with 61 colocation facilities, followed by Nigeria (11), Mauritius (10), and Kenya (9). (Datacentermap.com)
8. Cloud adoption is growing 25% annually in South Africa and will account for $1.5 billion in revenue by 2024. (Research and Markets)

Asia

1. Data center capacity in Asia is expected to increase 2.2x with over 13,000 Megawatts under development. (Cushman & Wakefield)
2. 80% of the data center capacity in Asia is located in the top 5 markets of Mainland China, Japan, Australia, India, and Singapore. (Cushman & Wakefield)
3. Beijing is the largest data center market in the Asia-Pacific region, and the second largest market globally, with 1799 Megawatts of power. The second largest market is Singapore, with an overall standing of 4th globally. Tokyo and Shanghai are the 3rd and 4th largest data center markets in the Asia-Pacific region. (Cushman & Wakefield)
4. Singapore accounts for 60% of Southeast Asia’s data center supply. (Mordor Intelligence)
5. Data centers used 7% of the total energy of the country of Singapore in 2022, rising to 12% by 2030. (Mordor Intelligence)
6. Datacenter occupancy rates averaged 60% to 70% in Southeast Asia in 2022. Singapore has the highest occupancy at over 85% (ResearchandMarkets)
7. Singapore was the most power-constrained data center market globally, with less than 4 MW of available capacity and a vacancy rate of 2%. (CBRE)
8. Data center investment in the Asia Pacific region doubled between 2020 and 2021 to $4.8 billion. (CBRE)
9. The hyperscale data center market will grow from $4 billion to $10 billion in annual revenue between 2020 and 2027, with a yearly growth rate of 18%. (Graphical Research)
10. China Telecom Data Center is the largest data center in the world, with over 10.7 million square feet in space. (Edu Dwar)
11. China is also home to the second largest data center in the world, with China Mobile’s 7,750,015 square foot data center comprising over 40,000 data center racks in Hohhot. (Ranked.com)
12. India’s largest data center is the Tulip Data Center Services facility in Bengaluru. It houses 12,000 data center racks and boasts 100 MW of power. It is also the most energy-efficient data center in India. (Ranked.com)
13. Japan is the 10th largest data center market globally, with 212 data centers. (Cloudscene)
14. Data center revenue in Japan will reach $18.18 billion in 2023. (Statista)
15. NTT operates the most data centers in Asia with 109. (Cloudscene)

Australia

1. Australia has 306 data centers and 173 colocation providers. Sydney leads with 91 data centers, followed by Melbourne (50) and Perth (43). (Cloudscene)
2. Sydney is the 8th largest data center market globally. (Cushman Wakefield)
3. Sydney’s data center inventory increased 30% from 2022 to 2023. (CBRE)
4. Australia’s data center market will reach $5.07 billion in 2023 (Statista)
5. Revenue is expected to grow by 4.47% to reach $6.04 billion in 2027. (Statista)
6. Australia’s data center market will reach 283 MW of power and 1,332,000 square feet of data center space by 2027. (Arizton)
7. Australia’s data center revenue is roughly 5% of the United States. (Statista)
8. 28% of Australia’s energy comes from green or renewable sources. (Mordor Intelligence)
9. AirTrunk is building the largest data center in Asia-Pacific, at 320 MW. (Mordor Intelligence)

Europe

1. Data center capacity in EMEA is expect to increase 2x with over 6,500 Megawatts of capacity under development. (Cushman & Wakefield)
2. The UK is the leading colocation service provider in Europe, with over 500 colocation data centers. (Further Market Insights)
3. Europe’s largest data centre is CWL1 in Newport, Wales. Built to Tier III standards, it boasts 1,450,000 square feet. (Ranked.com)
4. Europe’s data center market size will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 10% between 2023 and 2032. (Global Market Insights)
5. Germany has the highest amount of data centers in Europe. As of December 2023, Germany had 522 data centers spread around the country. (Statista)
6. Zurich was the most expensive market to build a data center in 2022, costing $12 per watt. (Statista) 
7. Data center power capacity is expected to increase in the Nordics, more than any other region in Europe, with a combined growth rate of 11% through 2027. The development of hyperscale data centers and high-performance computing drives this. (MMR)
8. Reykjavik, Iceland has the fifth most affordable power for data centers at $0.066 per kilowatt hour per month (Cushman Wakefield)
9. Data centers in Finland enjoy over 8,000 hours of free cooling per year due to the arctic climate. (FDCA)

North America

1. North America owns a global data center market share of over 40%. (Techjury)
2. Data center capacity in the Americas is expected to increase by 2.5x with over 24,000 Megawatts under construction. (Cushman & Wakefield)
3. 35% of data center market growth between 2021 and 2026 will originate from North America. (Technavio)
4. North America has three of the top 12 countries in the total number of data centers: the United States (1st), Canada (5th), and Mexico (12th). (Statista)
5. The top seven wholesale data center markets in North America are in the United States: Northern Virginia, Dallas / Fort Worth, Silicon Valley, Chicago, Phoenix, New York Tri-State Area, and Atlanta. (CBRE)
6. Data center vacancy is at a decade low across all major North American markets in 2023. (CBRE)

United States

1. The United States data center industry is valued at an estimated 99.97 billion in 2023. (Techjury)
2. Data center facilities in the U.S. data centers use more than 90 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity yearly. (The Business Research Company)
3. Northern Virginia is the largest data center market in the world, with over 2,600 MW of total power and 275 data centers. (Dgtl Infra)
4. Northern Virginia’s data center vacancy rate sat at a mere 0.94% in 2023, the lowers of all US markets. (CBRE)
5. Almost 50% of the data centers in the United States are in Virginia. (WTOP)
6. Data center capacity in Portland increased 311% from 2020 to the middle of 2023, the most of any US market. This is followed by Atlanta (91%), Northern Virginia (83%), Phoenix (57%), and Silicon Valley (53%). (CBRE)
7. The U.S. is home to eight of the 20 largest data center markets on earth: Northern Virginia (1st), Dallas (9th), Silicon Valley (10th), Phoenix (11th), Chicago (12th), New York / New Jersey (15th), Portland (17th), and Atlanta (19th). (Cushman Wakefield)
8. Chicago has the lowest per kW data center rental rates at $115 to $125. (CBRE)
9. The Citadel, owned by Switch, is the largest data center campus in the world at 7.2 million square feet. The next largest data centers in the US are Switch SuperNap in Las Vegas (3.5 million square feet), DuPont Fabros DFT in Ashburn, VA (3.3 million square feet), and the Intelligence Community Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative Data Center in Bluffdale, Utah (1.5 million square feet). (Analytics Vidhya)
10. Datacenters.com data center ranking lists the top 10 data centers in the United States as: Equinix DC2 (Ashburn, VA), Equinix NY4 (Secaucus, NJ), CoreSite LA1 (Los Angeles, CA), Equinix MI1 (Miami, FL), Digital Realty’s 350 E Cermak Data Center (Chicago, IL), Digital Realty’s 56 Marietta Street Data Center (Atlanta, GA), Equinix DA1 (Dallas, TX), Digital Realty’s 60 Hudson Data Center (New York, NY), Netrality’s 1102 Grand Data Center (Kansas City, MO), Switch SuperNap 8 (Las Vegas). (Datacenters.com)

Canada

1. Canada’s data center was valued at $4.05 billion in 2022 and will grow to $6.5 billion by 2028 for a growth rate of 8.21%. (Arizton)
2. Canada has 336 data centers in 21 cities. (Cloudscene)
3. Toronto has 267 MW of data center capacity, making it Canada’s largest market. (Cushman Wakefield)
4. Montreal has 126 MW of capacity plus 51 M.W. under development, making it Canada’s second-largest data center market. (Real Estate News Exchange)
5. Montreal offers the most affordable power of any major market globally at $0.0533 per kilowatt hour per month. (Cushman Wakefield)

Mexico

1. Mexico’s data center market is expected to grow 9.75% annually from 2023 to 2028, to $1.15 billion. (Artizon)
2. Edge computing is a primary driver for data center growth in Mexico. Mexico’s edge computing market is growing at 16.5% per year and is expected to reach $311.4 million in 2027. (Growth Market Reports)
3. Mexico has 166 data centers and 32 colocation providers.
4. Queretaro is Mexico’s primary data center hub, contributing 65% of Mexico’s capacity. (ResearchandMarkets)
5. Queretaro is supply constrained, with less than 1.2 MW available for lease as of June 2023. (CBRE)
6. Mexico targets a 45% use of renewable energy by 2030. (ResearchandMarkets)

South America

1. Brazil is South America’s largest market, with 163 data centers. (Statista)
2. Sao Paulo is the leading Brazilian market with 38 data centers. (DataCenterMap)
3. Brazil’s data center supply increased 127% from 2020 to 2022, the fastest growth rate in Latin America. (CBRE)
4. Chile (49), Colombia (35), Argentina (29), and Peru (21) rank 2nd through 5th in terms of the number of data centers in South America. (Cloudscene)
5. Santiago, Chile experienced the greatest decline in data center vacancy rates in South America, moving from 12.2% in Q1 2022 to 8.6% in Q1 2023. (CBRE)
6. Data center construction in South America will expand 7.52% annually from 2021 to 2028. (Mordor Intelligence)
7. Latin America leads the world in renewable energy for data centers, with over 60% of power capacity coming from renewable energy. (Cushman & Wakefield)

Data Center I.T. Spending

1. Globally, I.T. data center spending is expected to reach $222 billion in 2023, from $212 billion in 2022 and $216 billion in 2021. (Techjury)
2. The largest segment of the data center market is Network Infrastructure, with a forecasted market value of $203.40 billion in 2023. (Statista)

Data Center Services Market

1. The data center services market, including installation & integration, training, consulting, maintenance, and support, is will reach $15 billion in 2022. In the data center services market, small data centers accounted for 42.5% of the market in 2022, followed by large data centers at 38.1% and medium data centers at 19.5%. Increases in private cloud adoption and data volume is driving increased demand. (Global Market Insights)
2. The data center services market, including installation & integration, training, consulting, maintenance, and support, will reach $70 billion by 2032, a CAGR of 15%. (Global Market Insights)
3. The cloud data center services segment was expected to have the highest compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.7% between 2022 and 2030. (Yahoo)
4. The energy application sector of the data center services market is projected to consume more than $8 billion by 2023. (Global Market Insights)
5. The B.I. and Analysis segment of the data cancer market was predicted to register the highest CAGR of 18.5% between 2023 and 2030. (Yahoo)
6. In 2022, small data centers dominated the global services market, accounting for 42.5% of the total revenue in the market share. Large data centers contributed 38.1%, while medium data centers contributed 19.5% of the market share. (Global Market Insights)

The Bottom Line: How Can Brightlio Help? 

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