Thelittlepecan let us know that the World Health Organization has out a new report about global alcohol consumption, as well as the consequences of that consumption. Overall consumption varies significantly, with the highest levels in Russia and much of Europe and the lowest in northern Africa through Asia (the consumption figures exclude tourists):
There are also clear differences in the most-consumed type of alcoholic drinks:
The report also looks at what proportion of all male deaths are related to alcohol consumption, broken down by region, age, and sex. Globally, alcohol-related problems are the leading cause of death for males aged 15-59. For the regions, AFR = Africa, AMR = Americas, EMR = Eastern Mediterranean, EUR = Europe, SEAR = South East Asia, and WPR = Western Pacific:
Clearly the Americas and Europe stand out, though this is likely because those regions have lower death rates from many sources that are still prevalent in many parts of the world and, thus, alcohol-related ones show up more prominently.
Differences in blood-alcohol limits for drivers:
If you’re interested in more details, you can also get profiles of individual countries in each region at the WHO website.
Comments 44
Casey — February 16, 2011
What I learned today: America doesn't drink nearly enough alcohol.
Greg — February 16, 2011
I'm surprised you left out Figure 7. Although many parts of Europe drink greater quantities of alcohol, that figure suggests that North Americans engage in "riskier" (as defined by the study) modes of drinking. For example, a glass of wine with lunch and dinner every day (14 drinks) is likely going to be less harmful than 10 drinks in one Friday night.
jfruh — February 16, 2011
Figure 2 breaks it down by beer, wine, spirits, and "other." What qualifies as "other"? Something they like in Africa, apparently...
Lori A — February 16, 2011
Proposal for the U.S.: lower the drinking age to 18 and the BAC level to .06. Seriously, America.
b — February 17, 2011
I really dislike the way they chose random colors even for the graphs that involve increasing levels of things. A gradient of the same color would make it much clearer at a glance which countries are higher or lower, instead of having to refer to the key repeatedly.
Alkoholkonsum weltweit! | Vill's Blog — February 17, 2011
[...] Ganze Story -> KLICK! [...]
Anonymous — February 17, 2011
Here's an interesting piece from Malcolm Gladwell arguing that how we drink is just as important as how much we drink...
http://www.gladwell.com/2010/2010_02_15_a_drinking.html
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rory — February 17, 2011
Good to know Ireland, though outside the top 10 on total consumption, got the Gold in "Heavy Episodic Drinking"
Erin go Bragh
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bennyb — February 17, 2011
Nigeria consumes more alcohol than Cameroon and Kenya? Unbelievable.
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jojo — February 20, 2011
lol @Iran drinking “other” stuff…if u had any idea how much ppl drink alcohol over there
h. Play» Blog Archive » I’m serious — March 22, 2011
[...] nasty play about values and moral on how drugs are bad while alcohol is legal and globally, the leading cause of death for males aged 15-59… During that time the prison system is a profit-making industry (click on the number 1). I mean, [...]
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lisa — September 18, 2021
I'm surprised you left out Figure 7. Although many parts of Europe drink greater quantities of alcohol, that benefits of being teetotal figure suggests that North Americans engage in "riskier" (as defined by the study) modes of drinking
EvanBrown — March 31, 2022
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