Boozing it up

By J.S. and L.P.

Who really drinks the most alcohol?

TO JUDGE by national averages, Belarus, Moldova and Russia are the biggest drinkers in the world, quaffing between 15 to 18 litres per adult annually, according to the World Health Organisation in a new report. But those figures only tell part of the story. Not everyone drinks. When abstainers are excluded the national averages look extremely different. By this measure, it is in Africa, Asia and even the Middle East where actual drinkers quaff the most. In Chad almost nine in ten adults abstain, yet its 780,000 drinkers put away almost 34 litres of alcohol each. On the usual ranking, it would come 115th out of 190 countries. France drinks a lot, but because it has one of the lowest rate of abstainers at just 5%, it ranks 113th compared with 20th. Globally the world is drinking slightly more than in 2005 when figures were last compiled, mainly because developing countries are getting richer. (See our 2005 chart here.)