Caffeine (Coffee) Consumption By Country
Here is a list of the Top 50 coffee consuming countries as well as the type of caffeine consumption by country worldwide.
The first set of data was provided to us by euromonitor.com and comes with the following caveat:
These per capita figures refer to the dry weight of coffee (measured in metric tonnes) rather than brewed volume which is the final amount of liquid product the consumer drinks that is prepared by pouring hot liquid over the dry volume product of coffee.
Because the conversion factor to reach brewed volume varies from market to market, depending on preferred strengths, etc., looking at dry volume figures across countries provides a more apples to apples comparison. – Beverages Analyst, Dana LaMendola
Well anyway, here’s what their 2013 data revealed about the amount of coffee consumed by country per capita (per person on average).
Top 50 Coffee Consuming Countries
- Finland: 9.6 kg per capita
- Norway: 7.2 kg per capita
- Netherlands 6.7 kg per capita
- Slovenia: 6.1 kg per capita
- Austria: 5.5 kg per capita
- Serbia: 5.4 kg per capita
- Denmark: 5.3 kg per capita
- Germany: 5.2 kg per capita
- Belgium: 4.9 kg per capita
- Brazil: 4.8 kg per capita
- Bosnia-Herzegovina: 4.3 kg per capita
- Estonia: 4.2 kg per capita
- Switzerland: 3.9 kg per capita
- Croatia: 3.8 kg per capita
- Dominican Republic: 3.7 kg per capita
- Costa Rica: 3.7 kg per capita
- Macedonia: 3.6 kg per capita
- Italy: 3.4 kg per capita
- Canada: 3.4 kg per capita
- Lithuania: 3.3 kg per capita
- France: 3.2 kg per capita
- USA: 3.1 kg per capita
- Poland: 3.1 kg per capita
- Hungary: 3.1 kg per capita
- Spain: 3 kg per capita
- South Korea: 2.6 kg per capita
- Algeria: 2.6 kg per capita
- Australia: 2.6 kg per capita
- Portugal: 2.6 kg per capita
- Slovakia: 2.5 kg per capita
- Latvia: 2.5 kg per capita
- Greece: 2.4 kg per capita
- Czech Republic: 2.3 kg per capita
- Bulgaria: 2.3 kg per capita
- Tunisia: 2.2 kg per capita
- Singapore: 2.1 kg per capita
- Guatemala: 2 kg per capita
- Romania: 1.9 kg per capita
- Israel: 1.8 kg per capita
- The UK: 1.7 kg per capita
- Thailand: 1.6 kg per capita
- Venezuela: 1.6 kg per capita
- Japan: 1.5 kg per capita
- Colombia: 1.4 kg per capita
- Malaysia: 1.3 kg per capita
- Hong Kong: 1.3 kg per capita
- New Zealand: 1.3 kg per capita
- Georgia: 1.3 kg per capita
- Philippines: 1.2 kg per capita
There you have it. The USA has a long way to go if they’re ever going to out caffeine Finland as do most other countries around the world.
But, look who is the overall largest buyer of coffee worldwide.
Top 5 Countries by Sheer Tonne Coffee Consumption
Countries Who Pay the Most for Coffee
Recently Datahero.com put together not only a list of the countries who consume the most coffee, but also the countries that pay the most for their coffee. Here are the top 6.
- Japan
- Italy
- Portugal
- Cyprus
- Austria
- Denmark
How Countries Consume Caffeine
This data is a little old (1995) and it doesn’t include energy or soft drinks. However, it still provides some interesting insight on caffeine consumption throughout the world.
| Country |
Caffeine from coffee
mg per day |
Caffeine from tea
mg per day |
Caffeine from maté
mg per day |
Caffeine from cocoa
mg per day |
< Caffeine from all sources mg per day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Algeria | 79 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 85 |
| Angola | 4 | – | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Argentina | 43 | 1 | 52 | 5 | 100 |
| Australia | 202 | 29 | 0 | 0 | 232 |
| Austria | 276 | 8 | 0 | 16 | 300 |
| Brazil | 26 | 1 | 10 | 4 | 40 |
| Canada | 180 | 18 | 0 | 12 | 210 |
| China | 2 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 16 |
| Colombia | 126 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 136 |
| Denmark | 354 | 15 | 0 | 21 | 390 |
| Egypt | 5 | 53 | 0 | 1 | 58 |
| Finland | 322 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 329 |
| France | 215 | 8 | 0 | 16 | 239 |
| Germany | 292 | 9 | 0 | 12 | 313 |
| Guatemala | 23 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 27 |
| Honduras | 160 | – | 0 | 2 | 162 |
| Hungary | 138 | 3 | 0 | 9 | 150 |
| India | 1 | 26 | 0 | 0 | 27 |
| Ireland | 81 | 127 | 0 | 5 | 213 |
| Italy | 198 | 3 | 0 | 8 | 210 |
| Ivory Coast | 6 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 20 |
| Japan | 119 | 44 | 0 | 5 | 169 |
| Kenya | 8 | 42 | 0 | 0 | 50 |
| Kuwait | 49 | 112 | 0 | 13 | 173 |
| Malaysia | 49 | 27 | 0 | 4 | 81 |
| Netherlands | 369 | 38 | 0 | 6 | 414 |
| Nicaragua | 219 | – | 0 | 1 | 221 |
| Nigeria | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Norway | 379 | 8 | 0 | 13 | 400 |
| Paraguay | 51 | 1 | 101 | 3 | 156 |
| Poland | 100 | 33 | 0 | 8 | 141 |
| Russian Fed | 26 | 40 | 0 | 7 | 72 |
| Saudi Arabia | 14 | 13 | 0 | 2 | 28 |
| South Africa | 15 | 23 | 0 | 1 | 40 |
| Sweden | 388 | 12 | 0 | 7 | 407 |
| Switzerland | 275 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 288 |
| Syria | 35 | 67 | 5 | 2 | 108 |
| Tanzania | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| United Arab Emirates | 74 | 87 | 0 | 5 | 167 |
| United Kingdom | 92 | 96 | 0 | 14 | 202 |
| United States | 143 | 12 | 0 | 12 | 168 |
| Venezuela | 135 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 139 |
It’s fascinating how much the media hypes up the USA’s caffeine consumption when we don’t even come close to other countries.
- Sweden, Denmark, and Norway — all around 400mg of caffeine per person per day!
- South American countries, such as Argentina and Brazil get most of their caffeine from Maté.
- The Brits are big tea drinkers (no surprises there).
- The US? Just 168mg of caffeine per person per day (mostly coffee). I wonder how this has changed as energy drinks have proliferated. Do coffee drinkers consume energy drinks as well?
You can read more about this research in Pharmacological Reviews, Vol. 51, Issue 1, 83-133, March 1999 “Actions of Caffeine in the Brain with Special Reference to Factors That Contribute to Its Widespread Use” (link).
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