Alcohol is an intrinsic part of Australian culture and it plays a central role in most people's social lives. Heavy drinking is seen as acceptable in almost all social situations, from weddings to sports matches, and even at funerals or baby showers.
Australian drinking culture
Drinking is arguably a big part of Australian culture.
Belarus, a small landlocked country in Europe, consumed the greatest average number of liters of pure alcohol per capita. On average, its citizens consumed 14.4 liters each year, over 1.5 times more than Americans.
The international survey found Australians drank to the point of drunkenness an average of 27 times a year, almost double the global average of 15.
Alcohol is an intrinsic part of Australian culture and it plays a central role in most people's social lives. Heavy drinking is seen as acceptable in almost all social situations, from weddings to sports matches, and even at funerals or baby showers.
Typically, a distinction is drawn between northern and southern Europe, with the northerners being the binge drinkers. The highest levels of both binge-drinking and drunkenness are found in the Nordic countries, UK, Ireland, Slovenia and Latvia.
Almost one third of Australians (32%) consider alcohol to be the drug that causes the most harm in Australia, behind illegal drugs (44%) and ahead of tobacco (14%) and pharmaceuticals and prescription drugs (7%), while 3% of Australians are unsure. This is consistent with 2018 results.
A national poll reveals one-third of Australians have been affected by alcohol-related violence, many of them children. Australia has a problem with excessive drinking and most people believe alcohol is linked to domestic violence, a national poll shows.
The Great Depression added economic constraint to this mix and by 1932 Australians were drinking less than 2.5 litres of alcohol per person (Room 1988). After the Second World War prosperity returned and alcohol consumption increased dramatically between 1945 and 1950.
People aged 70 and over continued to be the most likely to drink daily (12.6%), followed by people in their 60s (9.6%) and 50s (7.3%).
Hungary has the highest prevalence of alcohol use disorders overall, with 21.2% of the total population afflicted. However, the per-gender numbers are even more informative, with 36.9% of men and 7.2% of females.
Australia's annual alcohol consumption is relatively high compared to other developed countries. The most recent data by country for 18 selected developed countries, indicated that annual alcohol consumption was in the range of 6 to 12 litres per capita.
Brits get drunk the most in the world, Australia close behind | news.com.au — Australia's leading news site.
The youngest legal drinking age in the world is 15, with both Mali and the Central African Republic allowing folks to drink at that time. Seven countries do not have a government-mandated drinking age, while 11 countries ban the consumption of booze entirely.
The percentage of Australians who drink alcohol on a daily basis decreased significantly from 6% in 2016 to 5.4% in 2019. In South Australia in 2019, 5.8% reported drinking alcohol daily; men were 3.5 times more likely to drink daily than South Australian women.
Which Race Has The Highest Alcohol Tolerance? There is no particular race that has the highest alcohol tolerance, only races that may be circumstantially predisposed to higher rates of alcoholism than others.
Australian men usually drink more than women on a day they have alcohol. Women are more likely than men to drink two or less standard drinks per occasion (63% vs 43%).