Which country drinks the most booze?

You may be surprised to hear that the Russians are not the world’s leading drinkers. In fact, according to a recent story posted on news.com.au, one of our nearer neighbours can lay claim to that dubious honour. With 1.6 million alcoholics and citizens that drink 14 shots of hard liquor per week, South Koreans are drinking the rest of the world under the table. Based on a recent study by Euromonitor, the story suggests that Russians only get through less than half that volume of hard liquor each week.

And what about us. Well, according to the article we’re not even close to the South Koreans “withless than 20 per cent of us drinking more than two standard drinks a day, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.”

It begs the question, why do South Koreans drink so much? According to the story: “Drinking isn’t just a national pastime, for many of its 50 million people it is a way of life and a sure fire way to advance yourself on the career ladder. Steve Chao, who produced the documentary South Korea’s Hangover for broadcaster Al-Jazeera’s 101 East said South Koreans work the longest hours of anyone in the world and faced enormous pressure from bosses to perform. With the average bottle of beer costing around $1, and no government guideless on how much is too much, Mr Chao said it was an easy social lubricant for many workers.”

You can read the full story on news.com.au here.