Spirits as a share of total alcohol consumption

Rationale

The recorded alcohol per capita consumption (APC) is part of a core set of indicators, whose purpose is to monitor the magnitude, pattern and trends of alcohol consumption in the adult population (15 years of age and older). Drinking alcohol can be associated with developing alcohol use disorder or dependence and higher risk of mental and behavioural disorders. It is a major risk for liver cirrhosis, some cancers and cardiovascular diseases as well as injuries resulting from violence and accidents. Beyond health consequences, the harmful use of alcohol brings significant social and economic losses to individuals, their families and society at large.

Definition

Recorded APC is defined as the recorded amount of alcohol consumed per capita (15+ years) over a calendar year in a country, in litres of pure alcohol. The indicator only takes into account the consumption which is recorded from production, import, export, and sales data often via taxation. Numerator: The amount of recorded alcohol consumed per capita (15+ years) during a calendar year, in litres of pure alcohol. Denominator: Midyear resident population (15+ years) for the same calendar year, UN World Population Prospects, medium variant.

Method of measurement

Recorded alcohol per capita (15+) consumption of pure alcohol is calculated as the sum of beverage-specific alcohol consumption of pure alcohol (beer, wine, spirits, other) from different sources: the first priority in the decision tree is given to government statistics; second are country-specific alcohol industry statistics in the public domain based on interviews or field work (GlobalData (formerly Canadean), IWSR-International Wine and Spirit Research, Wine Institute, historically World Drink Trends), or data from the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV); third is the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations' statistical database (FAOSTAT); and fourth is data from alcohol industry statistics in the public domain based on desk review. For countries, where the data source is FAOSTAT the unrecorded consumption may be included in the recorded consumption. As from the introduction of the "Other" beverage-specific category, beer includes malt beers, wine includes wine made from grapes, spirits include all distilled beverages, and other includes one or several other alcoholic beverages, such as fermented beverages made from sorghum, maize, millet, rice, or cider, fruit wine, fortified wine.

Method of estimation

Recorded alcohol per capita (15+) consumption of pure alcohol is calculated as the sum of beverage-specific alcohol consumption of pure alcohol (beer, wine, spirits, other). In order to make the conversion into litres of pure alcohol, if beverage volumes are not available in litres of pure alcohol, the alcohol content (% alcohol by volume) is considered to be as follows: Beer (barley beer 5%), Wine (grape wine 12%; must of grape 9%, vermouth 16%), Spirits (distilled spirits 40%; spirit-like 30%), and Other (sorghum, millet, maize beers 5%; cider 5%; fortified wine 17% and 18%; fermented wheat and fermented rice 9%; other fermented beverages 9%).