It’s that time of year again kids – that’s right, the WHO has released their saucy ‘Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health 2011’ – which means we get to find out if SA’s still a rock-out party country, or if we’ve gotten all lame and started taking our liver problems seriously.
The good news is that we haven’t gotten any worse at drinking; the WHO puts our consumption rates at stable over the past five years, meaning we’re still in the 10-12.49 litres per person per year bracket – any more and we’d be in the red, like Moldovan. Those guys averaged at 18.2 litres of pure alcohol in a year, though – so we didn’t exactly come home with gold.
We got honourable mentions, though; in southern Africa, Namibia and South Africa have the highest levels of consumptions, and get this –
“High patterns of drinking scores, or the most risky patterns of drinking, prevail in Kazakhstan, Mexico, the Russian Federation, South Africa and Ukraine.”
So I mean, we’re getting noticed in the big leagues. Keep it up, guys! Not that I have to tell you.
[WHO]
[Image via The Economist]
