According to the World Health Organization, US has the lowest rate of alcohol dependence with only 1.93 per cent.
Luxembourg, where residents pound down 15.5 liters of alcohol in a year, on average, ranks first.
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.
The substantial decline in drinking in Italy is totally attributable to the dramatic fall in wine consumption within the country since the 1970s, Gallus said. The new study shows that a decreasing pattern of alcohol consumption is continuing into recent decades, he said.
In North America, Native Americans have the highest probability of developing an alcohol use disorder compared to Europeans and Asians. Different alcohol tolerance also exists within Asian groups, such as between Chinese and Koreans.
The top 10 countries that consume the least alcohol across the WHO European Region are Tajikistan (0.9 litres), Azerbaijan (1.0), Turkey (1.8), Uzbekistan (2.6), Turkmenistan (3.1), Israel (4.4), Armenia (4.7), Kazakhstan (5.0), Albania (6.8), and North Macedonia (6.4).
American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) tend to abuse substances more than other racial demographics, and also suffer from more mental health concerns than the general American population.
There are about 14 countries that have outlawed alcohol to some degree. Yemen, one of the world's poorest countries, has outlawed alcohol to the extent that Yemenis cannot purchase or drink alcohol at all.
Latvia and Austria have the highest level of alcohol consumption, with over 12 litres per adult, followed by the Czech Republic, France, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Luxembourg, with over 11 litres per adult. Greece, Sweden, Italy and Malta have relatively low levels of consumption, below 8 litres of pure alcohol per adult.
Variant alleles of aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH2) and alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH1B) genes are prevalent in individuals of Asian heritage and have been associated with an increased level of response to alcohol and a decreased risk for alcohol dependence.
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.
Australia was above the OECD average for litres per capita of alcohol available for consumption by people aged 15 and over, at 9.5 compared with 8.4 litres per capita in 2021 (OECD 2022).
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.
“Australia tops the world in both the number of times people report getting drunk and in seeking emergency medical treatment for alcohol,” explains Caterina Giorgi, CEO of The Foundation For Alcohol Research & Education, on a rather sobering note.
Which countries tend to drink the most on average? According to the World Health Organisation, Austria, Ireland and the Czech Republic are the world's biggest binge-drinkers. That term is defined as consuming more than six units or three pints of lager on one occasion over the past 30 days. Read more on the indy100.
Korean Americans have the highest rate of heavy drinking (3.5%) and Chinese Americans have the lowest (1.2%).
Britain isn't the boozing capital of Europe, official data has revealed. The UK actually ranks middle of the pack for alcohol consumption, sitting behind both France and Germany.
Drinking alcohol is considered haram, or forbidden, in Islam. As proof of the prohibition, Islamic scholars and Muslim religious authorities typically point to a verse in the Quran, the Muslim holy book, that calls intoxicants “the work of Satan” and tells believers to avoid them.
The Eastern Mediterranean Region, consisting of the Muslim countries in the Middle East and North Africa, is by far the lowest alcohol consuming region in the world, both in terms of total adult per capita consumption and prevalence of non-drinkers, i.e., 87.8 per cent lifetime abstainers.
A report by the Italian Ministry of Health from 2015 highlighted that 64.5% of Italians over the age of 11 years consumed an alcoholic beverage at least once in their life, with a clear majority among males compared to females [4].
Alcoholism has been a problem throughout the country's history because drinking is a pervasive, socially acceptable behaviour in Russian society and alcohol has also been a major source of government revenue for centuries. It has repeatedly been targeted as a major national problem, with mixed results.
Alcohol is Associated with Injury, Violence, and Other Harms
Men have higher rates of alcohol-related hospitalizations than women. More than three-quarters of deaths from excessive drinking are among males, totaling more than 97,000 deaths each year in the U.S.
The World Health Organization estimates that as of 2016 there are about 380 million people with alcoholism worldwide (5.1% of the population over 15 years of age). Substance use disorders are a major public health problem facing many countries.