Alcoholic beverage consumption: leading countries worldwide 2018

China was the global leader in alcohol consumption by volume in 2018. The nation consumed 54.29 billion liters of alcohol, nearly double the United States, the second ranked country. This consumption translates to a market value of 285.9 billion U.S. dollars for China. The landscape changes entirely when sales are looked at on a per capita basis; China’s ranking plummets to 37 with the average person buying 40.42 liters of alcohol in the year. In comparison, consumers in the Czech Republic, ranked first, bought 164.08 liters during the year.


The Chinese market


China’s alcohol market is primarily driven by beer and spirits sales, with spirits sales consisting almost entirely of domestic brands. Chinese produced spirits occupied 38 percent of the overall alcohol market compared to just 4 percent of imported spirits. The overwhelmingly preferred variety of spirits is baijiu, a clear liquor, usually distilled from sorghum. In 2016, it accounted for 99 percent of China’s spirits market.