People drink a lot of alcohol in some countries and in others they hardly drink at all. To each his own, right? But if you've ever wondered where Americans fall on the spectrum then you're in luck. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released their latest report on which countries consumed the most alcohol in 2013 and compared it to the amount people drank back in 2000—the results are pretty interesting.
The OECD data shows that Lithuania really likes to drink, with the highest consumption of alcohol being a little over 14 liters per capita. Austria, Estonia, and the Czech Republic followed closely with each country at around 11-12 liters per capita.
According to their data, the lowest alcohol consumption was in Indonesia at nearly zero. Turkey, India, and Israel followed with about 1-3 liters per capita. However a number of the aforementioned countries limit their alcohol consumption due to religious or cultural reasons, as Business Insider points out. Interestingly United States was reported to be on the lower side of alcohol consumption, coming in at under 9 liters per capita.
The OECD defines alcohol consumption as "the annual sales of pure alcohol in liters per person aged 15 years and up." That means the U.S. was ranked lower due to the drinking age requirement being 21 and older (so there's definitely something of a skew happening here).
Notably their analysis based on individual-level data shows that "hazardous drinking and heavy episodic drinking are on the rise in young people and women especially." According to their data men of low socioeconomic status are more likely to drink heavily than those of a higher socioeconomic status.
