Prevalence and Per Capita Consumption of Alcohol Use Worldwide

"• In 2019 56% of the world’s population aged 15+ abstained from drinking alcohol – the numbers of drinkers and abstainers in the world are relatively stable over time.

"• The level of alcohol consumption per capita among drinkers amounts on average to 27 grams of pure alcohol per day, which is associated with appreciably increased risks of numerous health conditions and associated mortality and disability.

"• In 2019, 17% of people aged 15+ years and 38% of current drinkers engaged in heavy episodic drinking or 'binge drinking' (consuming at least 60g of pure alcohol on one or more occasions in the last month), while continuous heavy drinking was highly prevalent (6.7%) among men. Trends in total alcohol per capita consumption (APC) differ between WHO regions with a substantial decrease in Europe and a marked increase in APC in South-East Asia since 2000. In all WHO regions gender differences in alcohol consumption are significant with no major changes over time globally.

"• In 2019 the prevalence of alcohol consumption among 15–19-year-olds was unacceptably high worldwide (22%) with very little gender differences and a tendency of increase from initially low levels in some regions.

"• Worldwide distilled alcoholic beverages are the leading category in recorded alcohol consumption followed by beer and wines.

"• Unrecorded alcohol consumption made up 21% of overall consumption worldwide, and, overall, the wealthier a country or region, the higher the level of consumption and the lower the proportion of unrecorded consumption. "