List of countries by alcohol consumption per capita

This is a list of countries by alcohol consumption measured in equivalent litres of pure alcohol (ethanol) consumed per capita per year.

A standard drink is about 17 milliliters of ethanol, putting one liter at about 59 drinks.

World Health Organization (WHO) data

The World Health Organization periodically publishes The Global Status Report on Alcohol:

• The report was first published by WHO in 1999 with data from 1996.^[1]
• The second report was released in 2004, published with data from 2003.^[2]
• The third report was published in 2011, with data from 2010.^[3]
• The fourth global report was published in 2014, using data from 2010.^[4]
• The fifth global report was published in 2018, with data from 2016.^[5]
• The sixth global report was published in 2024, with data from 2019.^[6]

Worldwide

Percentage of current drinkers among the total population (15+ years)^[7]

Countries

Worldwide consumption in 2019 was equal to 5.5 litres of pure alcohol consumed per person aged 15 years or older.^[6] This is a decrease from the 5.7 litres in 2010. Distilled alcoholic beverages are the most consumed, followed by beer and wines. The regions with the highest consumption are the WHO European Region (9.2 litres) and the Region of the Americas (7.5 litres).

1. Three year average of 2017, 2018, and 2019
2. 1996 Estimates for Estonia are from 1995.
3. Officially named Swaziland until April 2018

Consumption by type of alcoholic beverage (2019 data)

The table below for 189 countries uses 2019 data (three-year average of 2017, 2018, and 2019) from the WHO report published in 2024.^[6] The recorded consumption values were based on data from government sources, statistics from economic operators, and FAOSTAT data and estimates the amount of alcohol consumption (in litres of pure alcohol) by persons 15 years of age or older. Unrecorded consumption (homebrew, moonshine, smuggled alcohol, surrogate alcohol etc.) was estimated using expert judgements and surveys. The total consumption (sum of recorded and unrecorded) is then broken down by type of alcoholic beverage. Beer refers to malt beer, wine refers to grape wine, spirits refers to all distilled beverages such as vodka and similar products, and the column "other" refers to all other alcoholic beverages, such as rice wine, soju, sake, mead, kumis, cider, kvass, and African beers (kumi kumi, kwete, banana beer, millet beer, umqombothi etc.). The last two columns represent projections for total consumption (sum of recorded and unrecorded) for the years 2025 and 2030, which are estimated using an ARIMA regression analyses.

See also

• List of countries by tea consumption per capita
• List of countries by beer consumption per capita
• List of national drinks

References

1. Global Status Report On Alcohol (PDF) (Report). World Health organization. 1999. Retrieved August 1, 2024.
2. Global status report on alcohol 2004 (PDF) (Report). World Health Organization. 2004. ISBN 9241562722. Retrieved August 1, 2024.
3. "WHO - Global Status Report On Alcohol 2011". who.int. 2011.
4. "WHO - Global Status Report On Alcohol 2014" (PDF). who.int. 2014.
5. "WHO - Global Status Report On Alcohol 2018" (PDF). who.int. 2018.
6. Global status report on alcohol and health and treatment of substance use disorders (PDF) (Report). Geneva: World Health Organization. 2024. ISBN 978-92-4-009674-5. Retrieved June 27, 2024.
7. "WHO Global status report on alcohol and health 2018" (PDF). who.int. p. 44. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
8. Global Status Report On Alcohol (PDF) (Report). World Health Organization. 1999. pp. 10–13. Retrieved August 1, 2024.
9. "WHO - Global status report on alcohol and health 2018" (PDF). who.int. 2018. pp. 341–348.