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Korea’s alcohol consumption lower than OECD average

November 21, 2013

A governmental research revealed that Koreans consume an average of 8.9 liters or 124 bottles of soju per year. (Korea Times file)

A governmental research revealed that Koreans consume an average of 8.9 liters or 124 bottles of soju per year. (The Korea Times)

The average Korean consumes 8.9 liters of alcohol annually – equivalent to 124 of the usual 360 ml bottles of soju (20% alcohol by volume), or 356 of the larger 500 ml cans of beer (5% ABV) – according to a government study.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare came to this conclusion on Thursday, after analyzing the “OECD Health at a Glance 2013” report.

Korea’s consumption level was actually lower than the average of OECD countries, which is 9.4 liters. France (12.6 liters), Germany (11.7), and Great Britain (10) are some of the countries with higher consumption than Korea.

Smoking was a different story, however. The research also compared Korea’s rate of smoking population in 2011 to that in other OECD countries, and found Korea’s smoking population rate, 23.2 percent of people aged 15 or older, to be higher than the OECD average of 20.9 percent.

Koreans also quit smoking at lower rate. Koreans are kicking the bad habit at a rate of only 11.1 percent of the smoking population, which falls far behind Japan (25.6), Britain (27.4), the United States (22.5), and Sweden (30.7).

Another interesting stat is the death rate related to cancer. For Korean male, cancer related deaths were found to be 290 per every 100,000, while for female it was much lower at 119.9 per 100,000.

The rate for males was slightly higher than the OECD average of 277.7, while the female rate was found to be significantly lower than OECD average of 165.8.