Hungary 8th most heavy-drinking nation in the world

According to a global survey conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO), Hungarians are the eighth in the world in alcohol consumption, portfolio.hu reports. In proportion, for every person over the age of 15, there is more than one liter of pure alcohol consumed. We are preceded, amongst others, by Russia and Ukraine.

Unfortunately, the stereotypes about Eastern Europe being a heavy-drinking region prove true in light of the findings. Those who drink even more than Hungary are the following nations:

• Belorussia
• Moldova
• Lithuania
• Russia
• Romania
• Ukraine
• Andorra

What is striking in particular about this list is that, apart from Russia, those coming before us are small countries with a low population,

which means that Hungary belongs the top 3% when it comes to alcohol consumption.

Even though the survey was conducted in 2014, subsequent research on smaller scales have not shown much improvement. Some surveys can also show varying results due to the differences in the percentages attributed to beer and wine, or because they include unofficial estimates in their findings – but the disastrous picture of Eastern Europe remains unaffected by these alterations.

Although the overall tendency seems to be that of a decrease in alcohol consumption in Hungary over the last two decades, we still drink more than Slovakians or the Czech – and they are not particularly averse to drinking either, with 13 liters per year consumed.

As is to be expected, Hungarian men drink on average twice as much as women – about two liters of pure alcohol per month. Hardcore drinking is four times more likely to occur among men, and only one third of men abstain from any type of alcohol. As a result, 31% of men struggle with alcohol-related problems, while only 6% of women have a drinking issue. And three times as many men die of  liver conditions (cirrhosis of the liver  in particular) than women.

Source: portfolio.hu