India is the country that drinks the most whisky in the world. The people there consume an estimated 1.5 billion litres of whisky each year. According to Liquor Laboratory, that's over half of all the whisky produced on Earth in the same space of time.
According to the Distilled Spirits Council (DISCUS), a national trade association that represents producers and marketers of distilled spirits in the U.S., Spain's love for bourbon is top in the world.
In addition, France takes the spotlight as the world's largest consumer of whiskey per inhabitant per year. The French get the credit for drinking more than two liters per annum.
When it comes to straight-up volume, India is far and away the biggest whiskey drinking country. According to research by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Indians consumed 1.5 billion liters of whiskey in 2014.
Indian whisky consumption has exploded by more than 200 per cent in the past decade, with India overtaking France this year to become the world's largest buyer of whisky by volume, guzzling over half the world's whisky – a staggering 1.5 billion litres!
Beer remains the most popular alcohol consumed in India. Wine and whiskey come next.
Looking at the amount of alcohol consumed per person aged 15 years or older, the Seychelles is in first place with around 20.5 litres of alcohol drunk per person per year, according to Our World in Data; studies show that young male peer groups primarily drink high amounts of alcohol in the Seychelles.
Vodka is native to Russia, even though there are lots of countries on Earth that make vodka, so it should come as no surprise that Russia consumes more vodka than any other country on Earth.
Which country drinks the most gin? Per capita, people in the Philippines drink more gin than any other country in the world.
The US was the biggest market for Irish whiskey in 2019. According to the Irish Whiskey Association and Drinks Ireland, five million cases of Irish whiskey were sold to the US in 2019. Sales of the iconic drink to America far outweighed those to any other market.
Jim Beam
Taking pole position in this year's list of the biggest-selling world whiskies is Jim Beam. Continuing its five-year streak of continuous growth, Beam Suntory-owned Jim Beam hit 17.0m cases last year.
India is the country that drinks the most whisky in the world. The people there consume an estimated 1.5 billion litres of whisky each year. According to Liquor Laboratory, that's over half of all the whisky produced on Earth in the same space of time.
Whiskey tends to have a more mellow flavor. Scotch is famous for its more smokey finish, especially if the barley grains are dried by peat fire. Also, when sampling whiskey you may stumble upon a blended whiskey. Blended whiskey is a mix of high-quality spirit whiskeys with less expensive spirits.
According to Veach, modern bourbon's origins can actually be attributed to two French brothers who moved to Louisville, Kentucky, in the 19th century. They started shipping whiskey from Kentucky distillers down the Ohio River to New Orleans in charred oak barrels.
While all whiskeys are made from a fermented mash of grains, bourbon is predominantly made from corn (more on that later).
The biggest hard alcohol drinkers on the globe aren't cuddled up somewhere in sub-zero Siberia; they're sipping on Soju, in South Korea. South Koreans drink 13.7 shots of liquor per week on average, which is the most in the world. And of 44 other countries analyzed by Euromonitor, none comes anywhere close.
Water. Water is the world's most consumed drink, however, 97% of water on Earth is non-drinkable salt water.
The report ranks consumption volume by country and region. China tops the list, reporting over 38 million kiloliters (some 10 billion gallons) drank in 2021. That's a little over 20 percent of the global market share and more than a 5 percent increase year-over-year.
Key statistics
191.2 million litres of pure alcohol was available for consumption. This equates to 9.51 litres of pure alcohol available per person. 12.43 litres per person was consumed by the 77% of persons who consumed alcohol last year.
Portugal. Portugal has the highest rate of wine consumption by country in the world. Portuguese people drank an incredible 51.9 liters of wine per person in 2020. This equates to roughly a liter per person, per week.
For example, Coca-Cola is the most consumed soft drink in almost every country, but its consumption is the highest in Mexico, Brazil, and the United States, according to the data collected by Gitnux.
There is perhaps no religion that loves alcohol as much as the Japanese Shinto religion, which reveres sake as the most sacred of drinks—the “liquor of the gods.” The god of sake is also the god of rice and the harvest, so drinking sake is associated with a bountiful and blessed harvest.
Which country drinks the most in Europe? In 2019, the top 10 European countries with the highest alcohol consumption per capita were Czechia (14.3 litres), Latvia (13.2), Moldova (12.9), Germany (12.8), Lithuania (12.8), Ireland (12.7), Spain (12.7), Bulgaria (12.5), Luxembourg (12.4), and Romania (12.3).