Wind energy was one of the largest contributors to an increase in renewable electricity generation in 2013, but different regions of the globe are adopting wind power at different paces.

Most of the leading countries with the highest percentages of wind energy in 2013 were located in Europe, according to a recent report from the Earth Policy Institute, an environmental think tank based in Washington, D.C. Denmark tops the list, generating one-third (33.8%) of its electricity from wind power. That doesn't come as much of a surprise, seeing as the country announced years ago its intent to get 50% of its electricity from wind power by the year 2020.

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Portugal's wind farms generated nearly 25% of the country's electricity in 2013, while Spain generated nearly 21%, followed by Ireland (17.3%), Germany (7.9%) and the UK (7.7%). Outside of Europe, China and the U.S. have the highest wind-power share — the amount of electricity that wind power generates, compared to the country's overall electricity production — at 6% and 4.1%, respectively.

While the European countries have the highest wind share, they don't necessarily have the highest installed capacity (the maximum energy output that can be produced at any time). For example, China may only generate 6% of its electricity with wind, but its wind facilities are designed to produce 91,400 megawatt-hours of energy. That's compared to Denmark's 4,800 megawatt-hours.

It's also important to note that these countries differ by population size and infrastructure, and therefore each country's amount of energy use varies.

While wind energy has many benefits, certain barriers continue to inhibit advances in its production around the world, including regulatory hurdles, financial challenges, political opposition and "not in my backyard" aesthetic concerns.

The following chart, created by statistics portal Statista, shows the eight countries leading in wind-energy shares, as well as their installed capacities.