Thailand now has the distinction of being the top alcohol-consuming country in ASEAN. People go on and on about the amount of alcohol consumption in this country so I had to do a little personal research. My interest was spiked when I saw a recent story on one of the Thai PBS websites.
According to the latest alcohol consumption data collected by World Health Organization, Thailand is ranked 1stamong ASEAN countries in alcohol consumption, followed closely by Laos and the Philippines. About 31.5 percent of Thai people aged 15 years and over, or about 17 million drinkers, consume alcohol regularly. It is interesting to note how low this number is compared to Canada and the US, where over 80% of adults drink on a fairly regular basis.
However, to put things in perspective, you need to convert everything to pure alcohol to compare one place to another. In Thailand, in a year, the adult per capita consumption is about 7.1 litres of pure alcohol, which is equal to 226 bottles of beer or 25 bottles of spirit. In the Americas, this number is about 8 or 9L per year, so not a huge difference. Men consume alcohol more than women in both areas of the world.
But it gets interesting when you confine the numbers to the drinkers only. In both countries, women drink the equivalent of 6-7L of alcohol per year. But among men, Canadians drinkers put back half as much pure alcohol per year as the Thais (12L vs 24L).
So there you have it! We now live in a land of booze. Not surprising when you see the number of bars per square meter of land anywhere you go. And this despite the fact that you cannot buy alcohol in any store between 2 and 5 in the afternoon. Not to mention it is the party capital of Asia for many tourists.
And finally, surprise, surprise…Canadians drink twice as much beer as the Thais per capita! Only 25% of the booze put back in Thailand is beer as compared to more than 50% in Canada.
WHO Canada Stats: click here
WHO Thailand Stats: click here
