By Thaakiera Ackerdien
If you google “alcoholism is Africa” chances are you might come across many articles stating that “South Africans are the heaviest drinkers in Africa” or that “South Africa has one of the highest rates of alcohol consumption in the world.” But are any of these statements really true? Or are they just broad generalisations made from brief glances at random statistics?
Image: People toasting with alcohol. Source: Wix Media
These statements have been echoed in numerous articles and blogs across the web in one form or another. Some claim South Africa to be “one of” the highest alcohol consumers in “the world”, and some claim that South Africa has the highest rates of alcohol consumption in Africa. All these articles have varying statistics all citing the same source, the World Health Organisations' (WHO) global report on alcohol and health, from 2011 and 2018.
In the 2018 report, there is a section referring to the 2011 report, on page 102, which states “The 2011 Global status report ranked South Africa as a country with one of the riskiest patterns of alcohol consumption, and with the highest reported alcohol consumption in Africa.” Indeed, many of the articles around this time echo this statement, stating that South Africa is one of the heaviest alcohol consumers in Africa. According to the WHO, South Africa’s alcohol consumption in 2011 was the highest in Africa with adults aged 15 years and older consuming an average of 9.5 litres each year, which (at the time) was a lot more than the African regional average of 6.2 litres per person.
As it is now 2022, it is, no doubt, safe to say that statistics from 2011, which was ten years ago, are now outdated. However, there are many articles, published as recently as 2019, stating that South Africans are the heaviest drinkers in Africa, all citing the same report from 2011 as their source.
The WHO’s 2018 Global report on alcohol and health includes statistics from 2016 on alcohol consumption in Africa. According to the report, the total amount of alcohol consumption per litre per capita in South Africa, in 2016 was 9.3 litres. Although this is one of the higher statistics in the report, it is by no means the highest. The highest amount of alcohol consumption per capita in Africa comes from Nigeria, with 13.4 litres, followed closely by Seychelles with 12.0 litres per capita.
Statistics from 2019-2022 show this same pattern in alcohol consumption. According to 2019 statistics, from the WHO, Uganda currently holds the title of highest alcohol consumption in Africa with an average alcohol consumption of 12.48 litres per capita in 2019. These statistics are the latest that have been made available by the WHO.
Slideshow showing the alcohol consumed per capita in Uganda vs South Africa in 2019. Source
Some statistics, such as that from Statista.com, from 2020 claim that Nigeria is actually the largest consumer of alcohol in Africa. Stating that the country has an average alcohol consumption of thirteen litres per capita, which would make it Africa’s largest consumer of alcohol in 2020.
According to Wikipedia, globally, South Africa consumed the 52nd largest amount of alcohol per capita in 2019. These global statistics also show that Nigeria is the world’s 6th largest consumer of alcohol in 2019.
According to the WHO, although South Africa does not have the highest rate of alcohol consumption in Africa, we do have high rates of heavy episodic drinking as well as high levels of alcohol-related injuries and diseases, compared to the rest of Africa. Although these statistics are relative to the amount of alcohol consumed per capita, with countries like Nigeria, Uganda and Seychelles showing similar statistics due to their high levels of alcohol consumption per capita.
As seen above, there are a lot of statistics from various sources that all point to the same conclusion, that South Africa is not the heaviest consumer of alcohol in Africa, at least not in recent years. The recent articles which make this claim all site the same outdated report from the WHO as the source for their claim and do not consider the updated statistics which are freely available on the WHO’s website all of which point to South Africa not having the heaviest drinkers on the continent.
I promise that everything stated above is factual as concluded by my own research into the subject at hand.
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