This is a list of countries by
alcohol consumption
An alcoholic beverage (also called an alcoholic drink, adult beverage, or a drink) is a drink that contains ethanol, a type of alcohol that acts as a drug and is produced by fermentation of grains, fruits, or other sources of sugar. The cons ...
measured in equivalent litres of pure
alcohol
Alcohol most commonly refers to:
* Alcohol (chemistry), an organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom
* Alcohol (drug), an intoxicant found in alcoholic drinks
Alcohol may also refer to:
Chemicals
* Ethanol, one of sev ...
(ethanol) consumed
per capita
''Per capita'' is a Latin phrase literally meaning "by heads" or "for each head", and idiomatically used to mean "per person". The term is used in a wide variety of social sciences and statistical research contexts, including government statistic ...
per year.
World Health Organization (WHO) data
The
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...
periodically publishes ''The Global Status Report on Alcohol'':
* 1999 was first published by WHO in 1999 with data from 1996.
* 2004 is the second global status report on alcohol published in 2004 with data from 2003.
* 2011 is the third global report on alcohol published in 2011 with data from 2010.
* 2014 is the fourth global report on alcohol published in 2014 data from 2010.
* 2018 is the fifth global report on alcohol published in 2018 with data from 2016.
Worldwide
Percentage of current drinkers among the total population (15+ years)
Countries
Comprehensive list with data from 2016
The table below for 189 countries uses 2016 data from the
WHO
Who or WHO may refer to:
* Who (pronoun), an interrogative or relative pronoun
* Who?, one of the Five Ws in journalism
* World Health Organization
Arts and entertainment Fictional characters
* Who, a creature in the Dr. Seuss book ''Horton Hear ...
report published in 2018. The methodology used by the WHO calculated use by persons 15 years of age or older. All data in columns refer to year 2016. The column "recorded" refers to the average recorded consumption for the period 2010. Unrecorded consumption (
homebrew,
moonshine
Moonshine is high-proof liquor that is usually produced illegally. The name was derived from a tradition of creating the alcohol during the nighttime, thereby avoiding detection. In the first decades of the 21st century, commercial dist ...
,
smuggled
Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations.
There are various ...
alcohol,
surrogate alcohol
Surrogate alcohol is a term for any substance containing ethanol that is intentionally consumed by humans but is not meant for human consumption. Some definitions of the term also extend to illegally produced alcoholic beverages.
Consumption of s ...
etc.) was calculated using expert judgements and surveys. Total is the sum of the recorded and unrecorded consumption. The next four columns are a breakdown of the recorded alcohol consumption by type.
Beer
Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...
refers to malt beer,
wine
Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...
refers to grape wine,
spirits
Spirit or spirits may refer to:
Liquor and other volatile liquids
* Spirits, a.k.a. liquor, distilled alcoholic drinks
* Spirit or tincture, an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol
* Volatile (especially flammable) liquids, ...
refers to all distilled beverages such as
vodka
Vodka ( pl, wódka , russian: водка , sv, vodka ) is a clear distilled alcoholic beverage. Different varieties originated in Poland, Russia, and Sweden. Vodka is composed mainly of water and ethanol but sometimes with traces of impuritie ...
and similar products, and the column "other" refers to all other alcoholic beverages, such as
rice wine
Rice wine is an alcoholic beverage fermented and distilled from rice, traditionally consumed in East Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia. Rice wine is made by the fermentation of rice starch that has been converted to sugars. Microbes are the so ...
,
soju
(; Hangul: ; Hanja: ) is a clear and colorless Korean distilled alcoholic beverage. It is usually consumed neat. Its alcohol content varies from about 12.9% to 53% alcohol by volume (ABV), although since 2007 low alcohol soju below 20% h ...
,
sake
Sake, also spelled saké ( ; also referred to as Japanese rice wine), is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indee ...
,
mead
Mead () is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey mixed with water, and sometimes with added ingredients such as fruits, spices, grains, or hops. The alcoholic content ranges from about 3.5% ABV to more than 20%. The defining character ...
,
kumis
''Kumis'' (also spelled ''kumiss'' or ''koumiss'' or ''kumys'', see other transliterations and cognate words below under terminology and etymology – otk, airag kk, қымыз, ''qymyz'') mn, айраг, ''ääryg'') is a fermented dairy p ...
,
cider
Cider ( ) is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented juice of apples. Cider is widely available in the United Kingdom (particularly in the West Country) and the Republic of Ireland. The UK has the world's highest per capita consumption, ...
,
kvass
Kvass is a fermented cereal-based Alcohol by volume, low alcoholic beverage with a slightly cloudy appearance, light-brown colour and sweet-sour taste. It may be flavoured with berries, fruits, herbs or honey.
Kvass stems from the northeastern ...
, and
African beer
Beer in Africa, especially lager, is produced commercially in most African countries, and varieties of beer are also made by indigenous people. Beer is served in a range of locales, from neighbourhood shebeens to upscale bars. Many countries have ...
s (
kumi kumi,
kwete {{unreferenced, date=August 2012
Also known as ''Kpete'', Kwete is the alcoholic beverage brewed particularly by the Lugbara people of Uganda and DR Congo. The production process involves mixing fermented sorghum, millet or maize, malt, boiled water ...
,
banana beer
Banana beer is an alcoholic beverage made from fermentation of mashed bananas. Sorghum, millet or maize flour are added as a source of wild yeast.
Etymology
In Uganda, banana beer is known as ''mubisi'', in DR Congo as Kasiksi, in Kenya as ''ur ...
,
millet beer
Millet beer, also known as Bantu beer, malwa, pombe "Tchouk" or opaque beer, is an alcoholic beverage made from malted millet that is common throughout Africa. Its production process varies across regions and in the southern parts of Africa is ...
,
umqombothi
Umqombothi (), is a Xhosa traditional beer made from maize (corn), maize malt, sorghum malt, yeast and water. It is very rich in vitamin B. The beer has a rather low alcohol content (usually less than 3%) and is known to have a heavy and distinc ...
etc.). Worldwide consumption in 2016 was equal to 6.4 litres of pure alcohol consumed per person aged 15 years or older.
See also
*
List of countries by tea consumption per capita
__FORCETOC__
This is a list of countries ordered by annual per capita consumption of tea, .
Gallery of tea varieties from highest consuming countries
See also
*List of countries by alcohol consumption per capita
*List of countries by milk c ...
*
List of countries by beer consumption per capita
__NOTOC__
This is a list of countries ordered by annual per capita consumption of beer. Information not provided for some countries is not given in the available sources.
''Note: The row number column is fixed. So you can choose what column to ran ...
*
List of national drinks
A national drink is a distinct beverage that is strongly associated with a particular country, and can be part of their national identity and self-image. National drinks fall into two categories: alcoholic and non-alcoholic. An alcoholic national ...
References
{{Quality of life country lists
*Alcohol by country
Consumption
Consumption may refer to:
*Resource consumption
*Tuberculosis, an infectious disease, historically
* Consumption (ecology), receipt of energy by consuming other organisms
* Consumption (economics), the purchasing of newly produced goods for curren ...
Alcohol
Alcohol most commonly refers to:
* Alcohol (chemistry), an organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom
* Alcohol (drug), an intoxicant found in alcoholic drinks
Alcohol may also refer to:
Chemicals
* Ethanol, one of sev ...