Most Consumed Alcoholic Beverage by Country

This map shows worldwide distribution of most consumed alcoholic (beer, wine, spirits or other alcoholic) beverages, in litres of pure alcohol.

Key findings for this year report:

• More than 45% of total recorded alcohol is consumed in the form of spirits, predominantly in the South-East Asia and Western Pacific.
• Approximately 36% of total recorded alcohol is consumed in the form of beer. Beer consumption is highest in the Region of the Americas.
• Commonly, high overall consumption levels are found in countries such as the Russian Federation, which display both high beer and high spirits consumption.
• Consumption of wine as a percentage of total recorded alcohol is globally quite low (8.6%), with significant levels of alcohol consumed in the form of wine in the European Region (26.4%).
• Beverages other than beer, spirits and wine (e.g. fortifi ed wines, rice wine or other fermented beverages made of sorghum, millet, maize) have the highest share in total recorded consumption in the African Region (48.2%), and in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (31.3%).

Most consumed alcoholic beverages in terms of litres of pure alcohol, which do not necessarily refl ect that the overall level of consumption of this alcoholic beverage is high. For example in India, spirits are the most consumed alcoholic beverages, but this does not mean that the consumption level of spirits is high, but that the proportion of total alcohol consumed in the form of spirits is high.

Note:

• Beer - includes malt beers.
• Wine - includes wine made from grapes.
• Spirits - include all distilled beverages.
• Other Alcohol - includes one or several other alcoholic beverages, such as fermented beverages made from sorghum, maize, millet, rice, or cider, fruit wine, fortifi ed wine, etc.