There was never a single shred of doubt about where we stood on this front. Call it a birthright… call it our unifying heritage… call it whatever you want, because now, this sunburnt, flushed-cheek, and cross-eyed land of ours has solidified its status. Australia has legitimately been named the world’s drunkest country by an international authority.
The Global Drug Survey questioned more than 32,000 people from across 22 countries on their drug and alcohol consumption in 2020. On average, when it came to frequency, it was found that everyday Australians imbibed a respectable two nights a week (placing 7th in this specific regard); but regularly navigated into “heavily intoxicated” territory roughly once every two weeks with 25% of respondents admitting they’d experienced actual “regret.” Over the course of 12 months, Aussies sunk piss like demons about 27 times last year. That’s almost double the global benchmark of 15.
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It’s fascinating to consider while the French were the most frequent drinkers, hitting the grog three times a week on average, they only reported feeling properly drunk about 18 times across 12 months (placing 8th in this specific regard). Clearly, this all has something to do with an ingrained culture of handling your highs as opposed to the open availability.
“Australia tops the world in both the number of times people report getting drunk and in seeking emergency medical treatment for alcohol,” explains Caterina Giorgi, CEO of The Foundation For Alcohol Research & Education, on a rather sobering note.
“Both of those indicators suggest people are drinking at fairly risky levels. We’ve seen a steep increase, which has sustained for calls for help to drug and alcohol hotlines, and increased alcohol involvement with family violence callouts.”
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“There’s an emerging picture [that] there is a significant proportion of people who are drinking at riskier levels… to cope with stress and anxiety. Those habits are hard to undo as we continue to live in this COVID environment.”
Giorgi added there had been a startling $3.3 billion increase in alcohol sales (residential) across 2020 – a trend that is reportedly carrying steam deep into 2021.
Check out the countries which trailed behind Australia in the world’s drunkest country rankings.
The World’s Drunkest Country Rankings (2021)
**Translation: the 10 countries where people got on the piss the most last year
- Australia
- Denmark
- Finland
- US
- UK
- Canada
- Ireland
- France
- Sweden
- Netherlands
Read the full report here.
