According to data collected by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 2019, nations like Latvia, Austria, and the Cook Islands have stronger drinking cultures than both Americans and Britons. The Cook Islands, a collection of islands in the South Pacific, topped the list with an average consumption of 13 liters of pure alcohol per person per year. This is equivalent to over 100 glasses of wine. The UK ranked 24th out of 189 countries, while the US placed 35th.
The CIA’s World Factbook, a reference database providing demographic information for 266 countries, gathered this data. The top five countries with the highest alcohol consumption include three in Eastern Europe known for their vodka consumption and high rates of alcoholism. For example, more than one in 10 men in Latvia and Lithuania are dependent on alcohol. Austria, known for its strong beer culture and where the legal drinking age is 16, also made it into the top five.
The Cook Islands, a self-governed nation in the South Pacific, have a population of about 17,500 people and rely primarily on tourism for their economy. Over half of the alcohol consumed in the Cook Islands is from spirits like vodka, whiskey, gin, and rum. A report by the Cook Islands Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO) found that nearly half of the respondents from the Cook Islands had consumed alcohol in the past 30 days, with higher alcohol use reported among men compared to women.
The WHO estimates that approximately 2.3 billion people worldwide are considered “current drinkers,” meaning they regularly consume alcohol. This accounts for nearly 30 percent of the global population. The US and UK, known for their drinking cultures, rank lower on the list. Europe has the highest per capita alcohol consumption of any continent.
In 2021, data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) revealed that Britons consume around 4.4 pints of beer or 2.3 bottles of wine on average per week. Binge drinking is also more prevalent in the UK compared to other countries, with 51 percent of alcohol consumed by heavy drinkers. In the US, approximately 213 million adults reported consuming alcohol at some point, with a significant percentage engaging in binge drinking.
The discrepancy in rankings between the US and UK could be attributed to the higher drinking age in the US (21 years) compared to the UK (18 years).
At the bottom of the CIA’s list, with no reported alcohol consumption, were countries like Bangladesh, Kuwait, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, and Somalia. These countries either banned alcohol consumption due to religious reasons or have strict restrictions on its sale and consumption.
If you are concerned about your alcohol consumption, one widely-used screening tool is the AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Tests). It consists of 10 questions developed in collaboration with the World Health Organization. Based on your score, you can determine if you have a low, medium, or high risk of alcohol-related problems and whether professional help may be necessary to cut back or quit drinking.
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