How much alcohol is drunk per person in each country?
In its latest rows (2024, the same values as 2023), WHO estimates a median of 4.36 litres of pure alcohol per person aged 15 or over across 207 countries and territories, from 0.00 (rounded) in 8 of them to 20.10 in US Virgin Islands; WHO's recorded sales figure, which feeds that total and is shown but not counted, is lower than it in 161 of the 188 places with both.
litres of pure alcohol per person aged 15 or over, per year
0481216
Year varies by country (2024) · grey: no figure
Latest figure for each country
Too small or not separate on this map: French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Reunion, Tuvalu. Each colour is one figure per country: one year, not an average, for the year shown in the ranking and when you point at a country.With "How sure" on, hatching marks countries whose latest figure has a trust score below 60 (Low or Very low).
All countries
Each source's value links to its publisher; point at it for the source and year. A value in brackets is shown but doesn't count, and pointing at it says why. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
About this data
Every source on this page (4)
Who is behind the sources
- 100% International body
Each publisher, its funding and its own description
- World Health Organization (WHO) · International bodyFunding: Assessed contributions (membership dues) from member states, plus voluntary contributions from member states and other partners. sourceIn its own words: “…WHO is the United Nations agency that connects nations, partners and people to promote health…” source, retrieved 2026-10-27
- World Bank · International bodyFunding: Capital from its member governments, bonds sold on world capital markets, and donor contributions to its fund for the poorest countries (IDA). sourceIn its own words: “We exist to create a world free of poverty on a livable planet.” source, retrieved 2026-10-27
- OECD · International bodyFunding: Contributions from its member countries, set by a formula based on the size of each economy, plus voluntary contributions. sourceIn its own words: “Our core aim is to set international standards and support their implementation…” source, retrieved 2026-10-27
- WHO GISAH, total per capita (15+) consumption, SDG indicator 3.5.2Used for 207 countries; counts toward 207. Years 2024. Retrieved 2026-11-02.Open the publisher's page
- WHO GISAH, recorded per capita (15+) consumption, all beveragesUsed for 189 countries; counts toward 0 (shown only). Years 2024. Retrieved 2026-11-02.Not counted where: it measures recorded sales only, which feed WHO's total; WHO publishes no total for this country, and recorded sales alone are not all alcohol drunk.Open the publisher's page
- World Bank World Development Indicators, SH.ALC.PCAP.LIUsed for 186 countries; counts toward 0 (shown only). Years 2019 to 2020. Retrieved 2026-11-02.Not counted where: it republishes WHO total.Open the publisher's page
- OECD Health Statistics, alcohol consumption in litres per capita (15+)Used for 51 countries; counts toward 0 (shown only). Years 2022 to 2025. Retrieved 2026-11-02.Not counted where: it republishes WHO recorded; it comes from national sources with their own definitions and age limits, so it cannot be converted to WHO's total; a stand-in from two other countries, not a measure of drinking in Luxembourg.Open the publisher's page
Why the numbers differ (9)
- The total includes the recorded figure. WHO adds its recorded average, its unrecorded estimate and its tourist adjustment, so recorded lines are parts of the total, not independent measures of it. Only the WHO total is counted. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- Unrecorded alcohol. Recorded figures count what shows up in production, trade, sales and tax data. WHO adds home-made, smuggled and surrogate alcohol and cross-border shopping as an estimate. Its largest estimates in the 2024 rows are Vietnam (7.34 of 10.71 litres), Cameroon (7.08 of 12.94 litres), Georgia (6.90 of 14.39 litres). (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- Tourists. WHO subtracts what visitors drink and adds what residents drink abroad, so a recorded figure can be higher than the total. The largest subtractions in the 2024 rows are Estonia (-3.43 litres), British Virgin Islands (-1.92 litres), Cook Islands (-1.46 litres). (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- Averaging. WHO's total uses three-year averages, while its recorded line and the OECD lines give single years. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- Sales years. OECD reports Canada by fiscal year (April to March) and Australia by financial year (July to June); this page stores each under the year it ends in. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- People counted. OECD's country notes give other bases for some rows: people aged 18 and over in Denmark, 20 and over in Japan and 14 and over in the United States. Its method note for Mexico divides by people who reported drinking. Each line's unit says which. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- Luxembourg. OECD's figure is the average of France and Germany, calculated from WHO data, not a measurement for Luxembourg. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- WHO's recorded series uses government statistics first, then industry statistics, then FAOSTAT. WHO says unrecorded alcohol may be included where FAOSTAT is the source, so recorded and unrecorded do not always separate cleanly.
- Where OECD names WHO as its source, its line is marked as a copy. Elsewhere OECD names a national source, and neither publisher says whether WHO uses the same figure, so that lineage is unresolved.
Common mistakes (5)
- A litre here is a litre of pure alcohol, not of beer or wine. WHO converts beer at about 5% and grape wine at 12%, for example. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- The figure is an average over everyone aged 15 or over, including people who do not drink, not the amount a drinker drinks.
- Sales are not drinking. OECD warns that most countries give sales as a proxy for consumption and advises caution. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- A recorded zero says only that WHO lists no recorded alcohol. By definition that series leaves out unrecorded alcohol. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- WHO's rows for 2023 and 2024 hold the same total in every country, and its metadata does not explain why. Do not read the flat last step as a measured trend. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
Context (4)
- WHO's world figure in its 2024 row is 4.86 litres per person aged 15 or over (4.9 [4.5 - 5.2], in WHO's rounding). Retrieved 2026-11-02.
- WHO: definition of total alcohol per capita consumption. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
- WHO: definition and source order of recorded consumption. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
- OECD Health Statistics 2026: sources and methods for each country. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
Sources considered and not used (5)
- WHO GHO OData API (ghoapi.azureedge.net): It returned a server error (HTTP 500) on every request on 2 November 2026, so the same indicators were taken from WHO's xMart API. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- WHO total before 2000: WHO's total series starts in 2000, so the total lines start there; the recorded and OECD lines go further back. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- WHO total by sex: The current release of the total series holds both sexes only, and the older sex split ends in 2018, so no breakdown is shown. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- WHO recorded three-year average, unrecorded and tourist series: They are parts of WHO's total, so they are quoted in its notes rather than shown as separate lines. The script uses them to check the total.
- FAOSTAT and national alcohol statistics: They feed the WHO and OECD lines and were not downloaded separately for each country.
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- Cite as: RealStats, “How much alcohol is drunk per person in each country?”, updated 2026-11-02, with the original sources listed on the page. Scores use formula version 1.0.
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