Alcohol Consumption

Alcohol has historically, and continues to, hold an important role in social engagement and bonding for many. Social drinking or moderate alcohol consumption for many is pleasurable.

However, alcohol consumption – especially in excess – is linked to a number of negative outcomes: as a risk factor for diseases and health impacts, crime, road incidents, and, for some, alcohol dependence.

This topic page looks at the data on global patterns of alcohol consumption, patterns of drinking, beverage types, the prevalence of alcoholism, and consequences, including crime, mortality, and road incidents.

Related topics:

Data on other drug use can be found on our full topic page here.

Drug use disorders are often classified within the same category as mental health disorders — research and data on mental health can be found on our topic page here.

Support for alcohol dependency

At the end of this topic page, you will find additional resources and guidance if you, or someone you know, needs support in dealing with alcohol dependency.

Alcohol consumption across the world today
This interactive map shows the annual average alcohol consumption of alcohol, expressed per person aged 15 years or older. To account for the differences in alcohol content of different alcoholic drinks (e.g., beer, wine, spirits), this is reported in liters of pure alcohol per year.

To make this average more understandable, we can express it in bottles of wine. Wine contains around 12% pure alcohol per volume1 so that one liter of wine contains 0.12 liters of pure alcohol. So, a value of 6 liters of pure alcohol per person per year is equivalent to 50 bottles of wine per year.

As the map shows, the average per capita alcohol consumption varies widely globally.

We see large geographical differences: Alcohol consumption across North Africa and the Middle East is particularly low — in many countries, close to zero. At the upper end of the scale, alcohol intake across Europe is higher.

Share of adults who drink alcohol
This interactive map shows the share of adults who drink alcohol. This is given as the share of adults aged 15 years and older who have drunk alcohol within the previous year.

In many countries, the majority of adults drink some alcohol. Across Europe, for example, more than two-thirds do in most countries.

Again, the prevalence of drinking across North Africa and the Middle East is notably lower than elsewhere. Typically, 5 to 10 percent of adults across these regions drank in the preceding year, and in a number of countries, this was below 5 percent.

Alcohol consumption by sex
When we look at gender differences, we see that in all countries, men are more likely to drink than women.

Data on the share who drink alcohol by gender and age group in the UK is available here.

Heavy drinking sessions
Alcohol consumption – whilst a risk factor for a number of health outcomes – typically has the greatest negative impacts when consumed within heavy sessions.

This pattern of drinking is often termed 'binging,' where individuals consume large amounts of alcohol within a single session versus small quantities more frequently.

Heavy episodic drinking is defined as the proportion of adult drinkers who have had at least 60 grams or more of pure alcohol on at least one occasion in the past 30 days. An intake of 60 grams of pure alcohol is approximately equal to 6 standard alcoholic drinks.

The map shows heavy drinkers – those who had an episode of heavy drinking in the previous 30 days – as a share of total drinkers (i.e., those who have drunk less than one alcoholic drink in the last 12 months are excluded).

The comparison of this map with the previous maps makes clear that heavy drinking is not necessarily most common in the same countries where alcohol consumption is most common.

Data on the prevalence of binge drinking by age and gender in the UK can be found here, and trends in heavy and binge drinking in the USA can be found here.

Share of adults who don't drink alcohol
Global trends on alcohol abstinence show a mirror image of drinking prevalence data. This is shown in the charts as the share of adults who had not drunk in the prior year and those who have never drunk alcohol.

Here, we see particularly high levels of alcohol abstinence across North Africa and the Middle East. In most countries in this region, the majority of adults have never drunk alcohol.

Global beer consumption
The charts show global consumption of beer, first in terms of beer as a share of total alcohol consumption, and then the estimated average consumption per person.

Both are measured in terms of pure alcohol/ethanol intake rather than the total quantity of the beverage. Beer contains around 5% of pure alcohol per volume1 so that one liter of beer contains 0.05 liters of pure alcohol. This means that 5 liters of pure alcohol equals 100 liters of beer.