Listen up my American Bros: we need to start drinking a lot more booze, because we’re getting outdrank (per capita) by eight other countries across the globe. Tracking the average number of alcohol consumed (in liters) around the globe we have a clearer picture of who is drinking and how much, and it appears that the East is straight up DOMINATING the West these days when it comes to tossing back grandpa’s ol’ cough medicine.
Yes, the Eastern countries of Tajikistan, Russia, and China are straight up drinking us Americans under the table when it comes to per capita consumption of alcohol. I for one cannot live with myself knowing that the East is wiping the floor with us in the global drinking contest, and pledge to go on a bender that’ll only end when I’ve single-handedly skewed the American numbers back into the top 5.
Here is a breakdown from The Washington Post of the eleven countries that drink the most in the world, with the United States coming in at #9 of 11, barely cracking the top 10:
These finding comes from a study by TheLancet which found that overall alcohol consumption around the globe is trending down, with most countries drinking less and less across the decades, but that China and a few others seem to defy that trend.
The Washington Post reports:
Many countries have scaled back on their alcohol intake over the past few decades, as evidenced by the chart above. The graph, which comes from a new study published in The Lancet, shows how much people in France, Italy, Germany, and the United States have eased up on booze since the 1970s. It also depicts the ascent of drinking in Asia, where developing countries are quickly developing a taste for spirits, wine, and other adult beverages.
But those two trends, as it turns out, are actually a bit more significant than they might seem above. The chart doesn’t measure how much people who drink in each country drink on average. In a country like China, where more than half of the population abstains from any alcohol consumption (42 percent of men and 71 percent of women as of 2010, according to the World Health Organization) that makes a considerable difference.
After adjusting for all the people who don’t drink in certain countries, the picture changes quite a bit. China’s per capita alcohol consumption for people who actually drink jumps to more than 15 liters per year. That’s more than the amount seen in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, France, and a horde of other countries. Only drinkers in Tajikistan and Russia drink more, per estimates by the World Health Organization.
So bros, are you going to sit back and let these Far East countries kick our asses in a drinking contest or are you going to stand with me, and step up your goddamn alcohol consumption? Leave a comment below, take a pledge with me to make a concerted effort to drink AT LEAST one more drink each night that you go out drinking.