How long would society last without electricity?

If electricity were lost permanently on a large scale, society would start breaking down within hours to days. Critical services like communications, water pumping, fuel distribution, banking, refrigeration, and many hospitals depend on power, so disruption would be immediate.

A practical way to think about the timeline is:

• Hours to 1 day: Communications, traffic systems, some water and fuel systems become unreliable or fail.
• A few days: Supply chains, refrigeration, retail food access, and many emergency services are heavily strained.
• Weeks: In a broad, long-lasting blackout, shortages of water, food, medicine, and sanitation become serious, and social order becomes much harder to maintain.
• Months and beyond: If power could not be restored anywhere, modern industrial society would not function in its current form and would likely shift to much more localized, lower-tech living.

So the short answer is: modern society would be severely disrupted within days, and could stop functioning in its current form within weeks to months. Exact timing would vary a lot by location, season, and how much backup power, fuel, and mutual aid are available.