What Country Do You Drink Like?

The average person 15 years and older consumes 6.2 liters of pure alcohol a year, the World Health Organization reported last week. That comes out to about one drink a day.

The figures for each country in the response do not include those who have never consumed alcohol, which is sometimes a majority of the population. For example, in Chad, the Central African country of 10 million people, fully 73.7 percent of the population are lifetime abstainers. Those who do drink there partake in great excess: 33.9 liters of pure alcohol a year, or five drinks a day. You can click the name of the country in the response to see the WHO’s detailed report on that nation’s habits.

According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, men are at risk for alcohol-related problems if their consumption exceeds 14 drinks per week or four drinks per day; women are at risk if they exceed seven drinks per week or four drinks per day.

Methodology

A drink of any kind is assumed to have 0.6 fluid ounces of pure alcohol, as specified by the NIAAA, which comes out to 0.017 liters. Populations with a lifetime abstention rate of over 75 percent are not included in this interactive.