Europe’s Biggest Drinkers

Europeans knocked back 79 billion liters of alcohol in 2006, or 101.25 liters for every person. In the U.S. the figure was 98.7 liters per person, while in the Asia Pacific region, it was just 22.1, according to research consultancy International Wine and Spirits.

It's no surprise that Europe is home to the world's heaviest drinkers; from whiskey in Scotland to wine in France, the continent has some long and deeply embedded alcohol traditions. Nevertheless, our ranking of Europe's heaviest-drinking nations revealed some startling results.

Croatia, the Balkan nation on the Adriatic Sea, came in at No. 1, while Britain, where fears about binge drinking have prompted a flurry of new legislation, came in at only No. 15. France and Sweden didn't even rank in the top 20.

We graded each country based on alcohol consumption per capita, legal restrictions on drinking, diseases resulting from alcohol abuse, and whether drinking habits, such as binge drinking or drinking in public places, are especially risky.

Each country was assigned a rank on the basis of each data set; the results were then totaled to produce a final rank. …

…But alcohol consumption takes a heavy toll. The tangible costs of drinking in the European Union, including health costs and loss of workforce productivity, were estimated at some 125 billion euros ($197.3 billion) in 2003, or 1.3% of gross domestic product, according to the study.

Nearly all the top 15 biggest drinking nations are in Central or Eastern Europe. Poverty and the harsh climate, particularly in Russia, play a part, as does the tradition of drinking. "Where it's extremely cold it's not uncommon for people to drink all day long," said Val Smith, president of International Wine and Spirits, which provided the data on per-capita alcohol consumption. …