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Spirits consumption per person

What you should know about this indicator

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%).

Spirits consumption per person
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.
Source
World Health Organization - Global Health Observatory (2024) – processed by Our World in Data
Last updated
January 3, 2024
Next expected update
January 2025
Date range
1960–2019
Unit
rate

Related research and writing

A dark blue background with a lighter blue world map superimposed over it. Yellow text that says Alcohol Consumption by Our World in Data

Alcohol Consumption

Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

The GHO data repository is WHO's gateway to health-related statistics for its 194 Member States. It provides access to over 1000 indicators on priority health topics including mortality and burden of diseases, the Millennium Development Goals (child nutrition, child health, maternal and reproductive health, immunization, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, neglected diseases, water and sanitation), non communicable diseases and risk factors, epidemic-prone diseases, health systems, environmental health, violence and injuries, equity among others.

Retrieved on
January 3, 2024
Retrieved from
https://www.who.int/data/gho
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
World Health Organization. 2024. Global Health Observatory data repository. http://www.who.int/gho/en/. Accessed on 2024-01-03

How we process data at Our World in Data

All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.

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Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Spirits consumption per person”. Our World in Data (2024). Data adapted from World Health Organization. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/spirits-consumption-per-person [online resource]
How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

World Health Organization - Global Health Observatory (2024) – processed by Our World in Data

Full citation

World Health Organization - Global Health Observatory (2024) – processed by Our World in Data. “Spirits consumption per person” [dataset]. World Health Organization, “Global Health Observatory” [original data]. Retrieved November 23, 2024 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/spirits-consumption-per-person