Where does Canada rank among world’s biggest drinkers?

Article content

The world’s biggest drinkers have been ranked and while Canadians are noted for loving their beer, Canada did not come in first.

Article content

The Central Intelligence Agency released new data on “alcohol consumption per capita” by analyzing the average litres of pure alcohol each person drank across 189 countries.

Article content

The data was collected as part of the CIA’s World Factbook, which serves as a reference detailing demographic information for 266 countries.

Canada barely cracked the top 50, coming nowhere near some eastern European countries as well as tiny islands in the South Pacific.

In fact, the booziest country is the island nation of the Cook Islands, with the average person consuming 12.97 litres of pure alcohol annually.

Beer is tops in Cook Islands, followed by wine, then spirits. About half of Cook Islands’ adults over 18 drink alcohol, with some groups drinking as many as 10 beverages in one night out.

Article content

Article content

Latvia came in a close second, with 12.90 litres of booze consumed a year. Spirits were the top booze of choice, then beer followed by wine and other alcohols.

The third spot went to Czechia, which reported an average alcohol consumption per capital of 12.73 litres of pure alcohol. Beer is the favourite, then spirits while wine brought up the rear.

RECOMMENDED VIDEO

Lithuania is No. 4 with its citizens averaging 11.93 litres down their throats. Beer was tops, then wine, then spirits.

Austria, where the legal drinking age is 16, rounds out the top five with 11.90 litres of pure alcohol consumed.

The country doesn’t have Oktoberfest but rather, the Wiener WIESN, which may explain why beer is the top alcoholic drink of choice, followed by wine and then spirits.

Article content

Antigua and Barbuda, Estonia, France, Bulgaria and Slovenia round out the top 10.

Canada came in at 44th, consuming a total of eight litres of pure alcohol a year.

Naturally, beer was the top drink for Canucks, followed by spirits then wine. The average spent on alcohol and tobacco amounts to 3.3% of household expenditures, as of 2018.

Other notables include Ireland (No. 15), Germany (No. 19), United Kingdom (No. 24), Australia (No. 27), United States (No. 35) and Japan (No. 39).

The lone African country in the top 50 was Eswatini — in 50th.

Meanwhile, the bottom of the CIA’s list are Bangladesh, Kuwait, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, and Somalia — tied at 0 litres per year,

Article content