Tea or Coffee?

With a global market valued at more than $300 billion in 2026, tea is said to be the second most consumed hot beverage in the world. As the United Nations notes, the tea industry provides "a major source of income and export earnings for some of the poorest countries and, thanks to its high labor requirements, generates numerous jobs, particularly in remote and economically disadvantaged areas."

Statista Consumer Insights surveyed 32 countries around the world to find out more about global tea drinking habits. It found that while tea was a popular choice for many adults, coffee is consumed by a higher share of people in almost every country included in the survey, except for Asian tea strongholds China, India and Japan. However, the difference to the share of respondents consuming coffee was just 2-4 percent for China and Japan and 9 percent for India.

Coffee-loving nations, on the other hand, shun tea to a higher degree. This applies to Finland, famously a nation of coffee drinkers, where 74 percent said they drank coffee regularly and just 36 percent said the same about tea. But countries like this also exist in Asia, the continent most associated with tea. In the Philippines, 70 percent said they drank coffee and 31 percent said they drank tea on a regular basis. These numbers stood at 59 percent and 25 percent in South Korea.

In Western Europe and North America, nations typically see around 60 percent of regular coffee drinkers and around 40 percent of regular tea drinkers. In Latin American countries, this was closer to 70 percent and 50 percent, respectively. The share of tea drinkers is elevated in the United Kingdom at 56 percent, the Netherlands at 55 percent and Germany at 47 percent. In the United States, a comparatively low share of people said they drank coffee regularly (51 percent), which was surpassed by soft drinks (54 percent).

The highest consumption of both tea and coffee was recorded in Gulf countries Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates at around 70 percent for each beverage.