Lithuania turned out to be the country with the highest alcohol consumption per capita. On average, Lithuanians drink 12.3 liters of alcohol per year. This is stated in the November ranking of the Organization economic development and cooperation.
Behind it were Austria (11.8 liters) and France (11.7). The top five anti-leaders are completed by the Czech Republic (11.6 liters) and Luxembourg (11.3 liters).
Russia shares sixth place with Hungary with 11.1 liters per capita.
Seventh place was shared by Latvia and Ireland, whose residents consume an average of 11.2 liters of alcohol.
Eighth place in the organization was awarded to consumers in Germany (10.8 liters), ninth - in Portugal (10.7 liters), tenth - in Poland (10.6 liters).
Indonesia was recognized as the most non-drinking country, or rather, the least drinking country - 0.3 liters per person.
Relatively modest amounts of alcohol per person are found in Turkey (1.4 liters), Israel (2.6 liters), India (3.0 liters) and Costa Rica (3.8 liters).
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Judging by the ranking, in almost all the countries examined, alcohol consumption per capita decreased between 2007 and 2017. Alcohol consumption in Russia is also decreasing, but there is an increase in the number of deaths from alcohol poisoning.
In the first half of this year, alcohol poisonings increased by 21.1% compared to the same period last year. More than 3.9 thousand people died. A year ago this figure was 3.2 thousand.
At the same time, Moscow topped the ranking of Russian regions in terms of the number of primary mental illnesses caused by alcohol consumption. In 2018, 2.8 thousand patients with diagnoses of this kind, including the syndrome, were recorded in the capital alcohol addiction. In total, in 2018, 75.7 thousand patients with mental disorders associated with alcohol use were registered in Russia.
According to Deputy Minister of Health Oleg Salagai, if she had compiled her report based on data from 2018 rather than 2017, Russia would not have been included in the rating.
“Today OECD data appeared, according to which our country ranks seventh in alcohol consumption, showing the largest decline in consumption since 2007,” Salagay noted.
Russia has never left this most drinking dozens of countries, moreover, the figures for our country in the OECD study may be underestimated, a member of the health protection committee argues with him in a conversation with Gazeta.Ru.
The sober lot is a heavy burden
Alcohol consumption above eight liters of alcohol per person per year is already the extinction of a nation, the deputy points out, citing the position of the World Health Organization.
“I can’t say that we have started drinking more or less over the past year, it’s just that more objective information, apparently, has begun to be provided, because part of what we drink [in Russia] is not taken into account in any way. These are various kinds of alcohol-containing liquids, which, unfortunately, our citizens drink, this is moonshine, naturally, in huge quantities,” the deputy noted.
According to him, the state is taking a number of measures to counter the alcoholism of the population, but this is not enough. A more systematic approach is needed. “If we want to preserve the state, if we want to maintain a healthy nation, these measures must be strengthened,” the deputy believes.
IN last years The government does indeed restrict the distribution of alcoholic beverages. For example, territorially: it is now prohibited to sell alcohol near educational institutions.
Age restrictions have been introduced (sale of alcohol only from 18 years of age) and prohibitions on sales during sowing and at certain hours. In Moscow, for example, alcohol is not sold after 23.00, and in some regions alcohol cannot be purchased even after 20.00.
One of the latest state initiatives to combat alcoholism is a bill to raise the minimum age for the sale of alcohol from 18 to 21 years. The Ministry of Health expects that the document will be adopted before December.
According to Minister Veronika Skvortsova, active period The formation of organs and systems of the human body begins at the age of 14 and ends at the age of 20. Therefore, according to Skvortsova, young people at this age “must be protected from highly concentrated alcohol,” that is, above 16.5%.
Do not abuse remotely
At the same time, the Ministry of Health came out categorically against the remote sale of alcohol, since if this initiative is adopted, all legislative prohibitions in the field of regulation of sales alcoholic drinks will be leveled.
The Ministry of Finance, meanwhile, expects to legalize the sale of alcohol via the Internet in Russia and subsequently throughout the Eurasian space from 2020. At the first stage, it is planned to lift restrictions only for wine producers and wholesalers. De facto, online sales of alcohol are widespread in Russia.
Meanwhile, in Russia, alcohol dependence was not higher than in Europe, and government measures here will not change the situation, the head of the Center for Research of Federal and Regional Alcohol Markets emphasized in an interview with a Gazeta.Ru correspondent.
“Why should [alcohol addiction] decrease? It was no higher here than in Europe. In all countries with European culture, they drink approximately the same. They drank, they drink and they will drink. 75-80% of the adult population, despite any anti-alcohol campaigns of the last 120-130 years,” the expert said.
The result of anti-alcohol campaigns in recent decades, starting with Prohibition in the United States, has been a sharp increase in drug consumption, Drobiz clarifies. It is for this reason that marijuana is being gradually legalized in some countries.
“There is a war between the drug lobby and the alcohol lobby. Both doctors and doctors are involved in this massacre. They (drug dealers) secretly use them (medics) like fools,” the expert is sure.
ALL PHOTOS
Lithuania has once again been named the country with the highest per capita alcohol consumption - each resident drinks an average of 12.3 liters of alcohol per year, according to the Health at a Glance report of the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD).
In second place were citizens of Austria, who drink 11.8 liters of alcohol per year. Third place went to France, where per capita there are 11.7 liters. In the Czech Republic this figure is 11.6 litres (fourth place), and in small Luxembourg - 11.3 liters (fifth place in the ranking).
Sixth place was shared by Ireland and Latvia, where each resident consumed 11.2 liters of alcohol.
And in seventh place of the “most drinking countries” is Russia with an indicator of 11.1 liters.
The “leaders” also included Hungary (11.1 liters), Germany (10.8), Portugal (10.7) and Poland (10.6).
Indonesia is recognized as the most non-drinking country (0.3 liters per capita). They drink little in Turkey (1.4 liters), Israel (2.6 liters), India (3.0 liters) and Costa Rica (3.8 liters).
The Ministry of Health also reported on a decrease in alcohol consumption in Russia the day before. According to the Deputy Minister of Health of the Russian Federation Oleg Salagai, between 2003 and 2017, mortality from alcohol poisoning in Russia decreased by more than 70%.
Have Russians started drinking less? Or is it the difficulty of counting...
In September 2019 World organization Health (WHO) published a report saying that Russians began to drink significantly less. Over the past 15 years, alcohol consumption per capita has steadily decreased and by 2016 had decreased by an average of 43%.
However, in fact, consumption decreased by 5-10%, notes Vadim Drobiz, head of the Center for Research of Federal and Regional Alcohol Markets. This discrepancy in data is due to calculation difficulties.
Until 2016, consumption accounting, that is, retail sales accounting, was handled by Rosstat. His data is very approximate because not every bottle was taken into account. Since 2016, every bottle sold in legal retail has been counted. And, of course, illegal sales are not taken into account. There is also one nuance: until 2010, illegal strong alcohol was sold in legal retail, and organizations also reported on it to Rosstat. All this leads to confusion in the calculations. In addition, according to Drobiz, at a certain period the Russian Ministry of Health significantly overestimated data on alcohol consumption.
“We have never had a consumption of 18 liters per capita, as the Ministry of Health and Mr. Onishchenko said about 2008-2009 (at that time the chief sanitary doctor of the Russian Federation). Even in those years, we had approximately 13.5 liters per capita. Then this figure - 18 liters - was taken out of thin air. There was a global socio-economic crisis, oil fell, gas prices decreased, it was necessary to get money from something, and the state decided to get it more actively from the alcohol market. declare that the country has drunk itself, and in this case there are WHO recommendations: increasing excise taxes on alcohol,” Drobiz said in an interview with Radio Liberty.
The illegal alcohol market in Russia is not reflected in the statistics, since it is impossible to calculate its volumes. And the main reason for the development of the illegal alcohol market is that in the legal sector it is approximately five times more expensive relative to the level of income of the population in comparison with Western Europe. Therefore, tens of millions of Russians consume illegal, handicraft, surrogate products.
MOSCOW, May 10 - RIA Novosti, Maxim Rubchenko. According to the Ministry of Health, since 2006, alcohol consumption in Russia has decreased by almost 40 percent. The World Health Organization, in turn, states that today the average Russian drinks 3.5 liters less alcohol per year than ten years ago. What is behind these indicators and in which countries they drink the most - in the RIA Novosti material.
Statistics games
The widely held belief that Russians are the world's heaviest drinkers is increasingly at odds with reality. Consumption of alcoholic beverages in the country has been declining for many years, and at a rapid pace. Data from different departments vary somewhat - WHO says about 13.9 liters per capita per year, the Ministry of Health and Rospotrebnadzor - about ten liters. In January, Russian Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova reported that alcohol consumption had been reduced by 80 percent over the past five to seven years. Be that as it may, everyone agrees that people in Russia drink less and less every year, and this trend has persisted for more than ten years.
In 2017 alone, alcohol consumption decreased by 0.3 liters - this is one and a half bottles of vodka (0.5 liters of alcohol), 4.5 liters of dry wine or 10 liters of light beer.
As a result, Russia is now not even among the top three drinking countries (Lithuania - 18.2 liters, Belarus - 16.4 liters, Moldova - 15.9 liters), occupying fourth place and quite a bit ahead of Romania, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Bulgaria .
According to WHO estimates, 13.9 liters of alcohol consumed in Russia per capita are equivalent to 34.75 liters of vodka. According to the Pricing portal, the average price of vodka today is 693 rubles per liter. This means that on average you spend 24,081 rubles on drinks. The average salary in 2017 was 35,845 rubles per month (430 thousand per year). This means that Russians spend 5.9 percent of their income on alcohol. That is, more than in the most problematic countries in terms of drunkenness in the European Union, and three times more than the average European.
On the other side, average salary in Estonia - 1242 euros per month, respectively, 5.6 percent is 835 euros.
However, the chief analyst of the Estonia Department of Statistics, Märt Leesment, claims that the average adult Estonian spends only 108 euros per year on alcohol, that is, seven times less. It is impossible to understand who is right, the Estonia Department of Statistics or Eurostat, but it is clear that such ratings should not be taken too seriously.
Unexpected conclusions
“For the first time, the population of several countries was studied in terms of lifestyle, health, and working conditions,” explained Andreas Eikem, professor of sociology at the Norwegian University of Natural Sciences and Technology, to the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten. “This has not been done before.”
Some results were quite unexpected. In particular, it turned out that the wealthy and educated drink more than people with low social status.
"Alcohol consumption in general appears to be associated with higher education, notes Eikemu. “This distinguishes alcohol, for example, from smoking, which is widespread exclusively in the lower strata of society. However, wealthy people drink “correctly”; problematic alcohol consumption is more typical for the lower strata.”
Another unexpected finding is that alcohol consumption begins to affect human health quite late compared to other factors. “Living conditions are more important and can tell us why we drink the way we do,” says Eikemu. “Problematic drinking is destructive to both the individual and his family, but is rarely the main cause of destruction.”
In addition, experts assure that bans (for example, on the sale of alcohol at certain times) are not The best way fight for healthy image life. “Our research has shown that for the vast majority of countries it is more important to improve the well-being of citizens and improve working conditions,” states Eikemu. “The fight against drunkenness is, of course, important, but first we must provide people with the opportunity to live in dignity. By doing so, we will create the preconditions for so that taking care of health becomes a habit among people.”
The Russian Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization are unlikely to agree with this conclusion, as they claim that the decrease in alcohol consumption in Russia is due precisely to restrictions.
The Russian Ministry of Health believes that a ban on the retail sale of alcohol from 23:00 to eight o'clock in the morning, as well as a ban on alcoholic drinks in children's, educational, medical institutions and at sports venues have played an important role in the positive statistical changes.
A question of culture
For obvious reasons, problems with drunkenness do not arise in countries and regions where Islam is widespread. Thus, according to WHO, citizens of Kuwait, Libya, Mauritania and Pakistan consume the least alcohol (0.1 liters per year per person), Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh (0.2 liters each), Egypt, Niger and Yemen (0.3 liters each).
It's the same in Russia. Experts from the federal project “Sober Russia” have compiled a rating of the most “sober” and most “drinking” regions of the country. Places were distributed in accordance with points, which were assigned taking into account the sales volume of all types of alcoholic products, the number of deaths from alcohol poisoning, crimes committed while drunk, citizens registered with a narcologist, violations in the field of alcohol circulation and hours of prohibition on the sale of alcohol during the day.
Before moving on to statistics, it is worth understanding what exactly makes people drink. Here are the main reasons:
- Urbanization. People who cannot cope with the pressure of a fast paced life big city, are increasingly relaxing with a glass of alcohol.
- Economic, political and social problems, as well as natural disasters. Modern man, without realizing it, is in constant fear for his life and well-being. As a rule, alcohol is used as a sedative.
- Low prices for alcohol. Due to illiterate government policy in the field of pricing control, alcohol is becoming affordable. Probably everyone has heard the life joke that a bottle of beer costs less than a bottle of milk.
Top 10 most drinking countries
So, Lithuanians took the honorable first place in alcoholism in 2017, overtaking the leader of the list of the most drinking countries of last year - Belarus. But this is due to a decrease in the consumption of a liter of absolute alcohol per Belarusian soul, and not because Lithuania suddenly began to become an alcoholic. The most drinking people in the world consume more than 16 liters of pure alcohol per year, although the 12 liter mark is considered critical, exceeding which leads to
degradation of the nation.
Belarus ranks second, consuming just under 16 liters of ethanol per capita per year. However, some experts believe that it is worth awarding second place to Moldova, where winemaking is very highly developed and a large amount of unaccounted alcohol is drunk.
Third place is shared by two more of our neighbors, Ukraine and Estonia, which have approximately the same consumption rates. Experts believe that one of the reasons for alcoholism in both countries is the fairly low cost of strong drinks and their wide availability. The authorities are trying to fight the addiction, but so far to no avail.
Andorra unexpectedly takes fourth place, where low prices for any alcoholic products.
Fifth place goes to the Czechs for a reason, because the national drink in their country is beer, which begins to be abused from the age of 15. In fact, in the Czech Republic, beer is not considered alcohol, although its harmful effects on the body, especially in large quantities, have long been known. On average, each Czech drinks more than a hundred liters of beer per year, which is an absolute world record. Uganda is closest to the Czech Republic, but its beer consumption rate is 25 liters less.
In sixth place on the list of the most drinking countries are the Germans with their legendary schnapps and, of course, beer festivals, which attract connoisseurs of the foamy drink from all over the world.
The next country, occupying seventh place in the alcohol chart, is Ireland, which actively consumes not only the world-famous Guinness, but also other, stronger drinks.
Eighth place was shared by Spain and Portugal, lovers of drinking cool wine and beer in the midday heat. The Spaniards know a lot about wine; most of the world's wine varieties are grown here. And the Portuguese are not lagging behind in the alcohol industry thanks to their favorite national drink, port wine.
Ninth place goes to Hungarian winemakers. Wine in this country is quite good and inexpensive, which makes it possible to enjoy in decent quantities.
No, no one has forgotten about Russia, but it’s nice to note that our country is at the bottom of the top ten alcohol leaders, and not at the top, although five to seven years ago our country was consistently among the top three, and Russians were considered the heaviest drinking people in the world. Preferences remain the same; Russians’ favorite alcoholic drinks are still vodka and beer, but consumption has decreased over five years by almost 3.5 liters of ethanol per capita, and this is a very serious indicator.
Russia
During 2017-2018, alcohol consumption by the population decreased slightly, but the country still entered the ranking of the most drinking countries in the world. The average Russian drinks 15.1 liters per year.
alcohol. Women consume half as much – 7.8 liters.
According to UN statistics, in 2015 the volume of alcohol consumed per capita per year in our country was 13.5 liters. The Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation claims that in 2017 general level consumption of alcoholic beverages decreased - compared to the same year in 2015, the volume of consumption decreased by 2 liters.
Analyzing data from previous years, the ministry states that there is a situation of a steady downward trend in alcohol consumption. This fact cannot but rejoice.
However, alcohol in our country still continues to be consumed. And they still do it in large quantities. Alcoholism in Russia affects 3.4% of the population; only half of this number is registered in drug treatment clinics.
If we talk about the stages of alcoholism, then the majority of the population consists of moderate drinkers. There are 68% of them. Another 10% suffer from stage 1 alcoholism, 5% - stage 2, 0.5% - stage 3. The remaining 16.5% do not drink alcohol at all.
The problem of female alcoholism is also relevant for Russia. According to statistics, for every 10 male alcoholics, there are 3-4 women suffering from alcoholism. Alcohol abuse among teenagers also occurs. In Russia, 25 thousand teenagers are registered as suffering from the 1st stage of alcohol dependence.
At the end of 2017, alcohol consumption by the population decreased slightly, but the country still entered the top five most drinkers in the world. The average Russian drinks 15.1 liters per year. alcohol. Women consume half as much – 7.8 liters.
The national drink is vodka. In Russia, greater preference is given to vodka and beer; the purely Russian habit of choosing “white” has spread to other post-Soviet states, such as Moldova, Belarus, Kazakhstan, etc. It is in these countries that a person is more likely to reach a state of extreme intoxication when drinking alcohol , as fast as possible.
Recently, the number of Russians who prefer wine to other alcoholic beverages has increased.
But it was Russia that came out on top. Unfortunately, Russians do not drink too much wine, but they make up for the lack of it with beer and vodka. Although, according to researchers, the percentage of the population inclined to drink wine is gradually growing.
Alcohol consumption in Russia is about 15 liters per person. The main share falls on vodka.
In second place is beer. Russia's inclusion in the ranking of drinking countries is also due to the price of alcohol.
Alcoholic drinks are several times cheaper than, for example, in Europe. Fortunately, thanks to government policy, the population’s craving for alcohol is gradually decreasing.
The population's interest in high-quality wine, which is less harmful to health than vodka, is also growing.
Alcohol consumption: 10.12 liters of alcohol per person per year
For three years now, there has been a trend in the country to reduce the consumption of alcoholic beverages by the population.
Which countries can be called the most drinking in the world?
This ranking of countries by alcohol per capita is compiled by WHO based on an official survey different groups population. Below are ten countries that are among the heaviest drinkers. The list of countries by alcohol consumption per person is as follows.
1st place - Republic of Belarus
In first place in terms of the amount of alcohol consumed is Belarus - the most drinking country in the world. According to statistical studies, in this state there are 17.5 liters of alcohol per resident of the country. In this case, the first place is occupied by strong alcohol. It is preferred by more than 47.5 percent of drinkers. Beer products are in second position. The average age of drinkers in this country ranges from 18 to 35 years.
