An empirical analysis of coal use embodied in the globalized world economy is performed in the present work via the application of a systems multi-regional input-output model for 2012. The use of primary coal is tracked from the sources of exploitation to the sinks of final use through inter-regional trade as a global supply network. Mainland China is revealed to be the largest coal user, but the per-capita coal use embodied in its household consumption is only a quarter of that in the United States, and doesn’t even exceed the level in the United Kingdom, the leader in the movement away from coal. The global trade volume of coal use is in magnitude calculated up to seventy percent of the world total coal exploitation. The United States is demonstrated to be the world's leading importer of coal use, of which the imports are dominated by non-coal products as indirect coal imports. In contrast, mainland China is the leading exporter, mainly due to the massive exports of commodities ‘Made in China’. Two new indicators of self-sufficiency rates are developed, in order to explore the direct and indirect external coal dependence of the region. Two-fifths of the coal finally used by the United States turns out to be exploited from foreign areas, which is different from the result that the United States has no dependence on foreign coal resources based on the conventional external dependence degree. This overview of coal use aims to provide a global insight into energy sustainability, as well as a sound scientific reference for policy making for global resources management and climate change mitigation. •Coal use flows of the world economy 2012 are depicted by a systems multi-regional input-output analysis.•China is both the largest sink of coal use and the largest source of coal exploitation.•The global trade volume of coal use is in magnitude 70% of global total exploitation.•Two indicators of self-sufficiency are developed to improve the coal security evaluation.•Two-fifths of coal use by the United States is from foreign areas.