Today we will see the top drinking countries with the highest alcoholism rates in the world. You probably already have some ideas on what country has the highest rate of alcoholism, or at least which region based on some stereotypes. But let’s first see some facts before we confirm or deny that guesses.
Being a stereotype or not, the fact is that one of the regions of the world where alcoholism rates are the highest is Eastern Europe. The fact is that in the Eastern European countries the annual average is more than 12.5 liters of pure alcohol per capita! Alcoholism is a big issue globally. It is factor a for a wide range of diseases, which sometimes lead to deadly consequences, as you can see in 10 Countries with the Most Alcohol Related Deaths in the World. But there are numerous factors leading to alcoholism, those being stress, emotional instability, bad habits, and depression just to name some. Many of these factors can be related with jobs, there often having too much stress, and a lot of other problems, as you can read more here in 18 Professions with the Highest Alcoholism Rates in US.
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Let’s also see some interesting facts. You might have wondered which those countries that drink the most beer are. The Czech Republic and Germany must be somewhere at the top, since they are one of the most famous beer countries in the world, right? Yes, Czechs beat all others by beer consumption with around 142 liters per year per capita. But Germany (with 104.7 liters per capita) here stands only at the fourth place, having Seychelles and Austria ahead, with 114 and 104.8 liters per capita respectively.
So, Seychelles is second in the race, also having Namibia at the 5th place on beer consumption, but which are the top drinking countries in Africa in general? According to the data of World Health Organization and their Global status report on alcohol and health 2014, among the top are South Africa (11.0 liters per capita), Gabon (10.9), Namibia (10.8) and Nigeria (10.1). Even though not being among the top drinking countries with the highest alcoholism rates, these are some high figures you will agree.
Price is one of the matters that take part in higher rates of alcoholism as is the case in the most drinking countries with the highest alcoholism rates in the world. In the US, for example, one of the choices for the more “quality drinking” could be whiskey (so, therefore, there is a choice of the Best Bourbon for the Money: 10 Best bourbons under 50). But of course, some other socioeconomic conditions affect alcoholism rates are legal ages for alcohol consumption and different drinking guidelines in different countries for example.
So, how did we get to the making and ranking of the top drinking countries with the highest alcoholism rates in the world? As the most reliable source on the matter of alcoholism, we have consulted the World Health Organization. First, we have taken statistics about Global consumption by country. The data we have used was last updated in 2015, but comes from 2010. Why did we choose the data from this year, since it is not the freshest date? First, because the data is a compilation of three year data from 2008-2010 (so it shows rather a process than a state at a single point at a time), and the second reason is being that his year was the last year which had complete data for all countries. While this is the case, we have (apart from ranking according to the annual amount of pure alcohol consumption per capita in liters) also added current trend in alcoholism rate – increasing/decreasing according to newer available data (2010 onwards). But this parameter is only here to show the latest available data rather than being a comparison since it is showing the status from the single year. The information on the newest figures come from 2016 and represent alcohol per capita consumption from 2000 for each year.
So now when we have had our methodology explained, let’s see the top drinking countries with the highest alcoholism rates in the world.
15. Finland
Alcohol consumption per capita: 12.3l
Current status: decreasing (8.8 in 2014)
Finland is country of huge wealth nowadays, the best education system in the world, and generally a great country to live in, but it is also among the countries with the highest alcoholism rates in the world. Around 1.5 million Finns are affected by alcohol abuse, and it is predominantly seen in the female part of the population.
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