Global Alcohol Consumption

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently took a crack at figuring out how much alcohol is consumed per capita in its member states. From its web page:

The Global status report on alcohol and health (2011) presents a comprehensive perspective on the global, regional and country consumption of alcohol, patterns of drinking, health consequences and policy responses in Member States. It represents a continuing effort by the World Health Organization (WHO) to support Member States in collecting information in order to assist them in their efforts to reduce the harmful use of alcohol, and its health and social consequences. The report was launched in Geneva on Friday 11 Februray 2011 during the first meeting of the WHO global counterparts for implementation of the global strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol.

Alcohol consumption is an important data point for policymakers because, as the WHO notes, 'Harmful alcohol use is one of four common risk factors, along with tobacco use, poor diet and physical inactivity, for the four main groups of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) – cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic lung diseases and diabetes.' As we discussed in our post yesterday, preventable diseases are a tremendous drain on the economy, making education about contributing factors an important policy goal. For the full WHO report, visit here. For a more colorful way to see if your country is one of the booziest on the planet, visit CNBC here.