There are stereotypes associated with everything, especially drinking. We think that the French love their wine, Germans like to chug down a few steins of beer and Russians prefer a shot of vodka. But the thing with stereotypes is that they're often not true and certainly not applicable to the group being described. So is there truth to these commonly held ideas about the alcoholic preferences of people around the world?
In fact, there actually is. An interactive map created by Ghost in the Data shows how much and which kind of alcohol the people of the world drink in a week. The map uses data from the World Health Organization's Global Information System on Alcohol and Health to show how much people 15 years or older are drinking globally, which you can see by hovering your cursor over each nation.
You can also see the drink of choice for each country by toggling between options to see the amount of wine, beer and spirits consumed. There's also the option to click on the "Favorite" button to check out which drink reigns supreme in that area.
The results aren't altogether shocking, but it's still cool to be able to validate some of the preconceived notions about what the citizens of each country like to drink. For instance, the French do really love their wine, Germans do really love their beer and Russians do really love their spirits. And in our very own United States of America, the drink of choice is beer. But you probably knew that already.
The Middle Eastern countries noticeably show very little alcohol consumed. This is probably because Islam forbids the consumption of alcohol.
It's still worth taking a tour of the map though, because there are a few interesting findings. One is that the people living in the African countries Namibia and Gabon drink more beer per week than those in Germany. Another is that the citizens of Laos don't like spirits at all but drink a decent amount of beer and wine. The small country of Cyprus also holds its own in the consumption of all three different types of drinks.
It's too bad there isn't an easier way to see which country drinks the most overall. Don't you want to know who in the world parties the hardest?
[H/T Esquire]
