Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to estimate energy efficiency of 132 countries from 2007 to 2014 according to their performance, categorizing the nations into similar groups.
Design/methodology/approach
Data envelopment analysis model based on Goal Programming and then K-Means clustering algorithm are used to determine the efficiency and clustering the nations based on their efficiency performances.
Findings
The results of the study reveal that developing low-income countries could lead to high energy-efficiency scores, and countries with different development and income levels can become efficient in the field of energy consumption. Following the nations during a seven-year period also indicates that the changes in energy-related indicators such as renewable energy consumption and energy productivity are the main drivers to move a country between clusters.
Originality/value
The present study aimed to investigate whether similar nations with similar energy efficiency level in a cluster are similar in their development and income level, and changing the energy consumption pattern during the seven-year period could move the countries from a cluster to another one.
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