placestats

Alcohol consumption vs. Fixed broadband

Fades after adjusting for income

Across 182 countries, Alcohol consumption and Fixed broadband rise and fall together at r = +0.59 (on a scale from −1 to +1, where 0 means no link). Comparing only countries with similar income (GDP per person) shrinks it to +0.38, which could easily be chance (q = 0.078, allowing for the many pairs tested, and allowing for countries in the same region being alike). So the first figure mostly shows richer countries differing from poorer ones, not a link between these two things.

Comparing countries across the middle half of alcohol consumption, 1.76 to 8.05 litres per adult per year, fixed broadband is better by 15.1 per 100 people at the top of that range than the bottom. Comparing only countries with similar national income, the gap is 6.28 per 100 people.

Link before adjusting (r)+0.594p = 9.5e-19 · 182 countries
After adjusting for national income+0.376p = 1.8e-7 · likely range [+0.24, +0.49]
p, allowing for regions0.011standard error 0.104 · 7 regions
Check for luck (q)0.078across 12,497 pairs

How to read these.r runs from −1 (one goes up as the other goes down) to +1 (they rise together), and 0 means no link. Adjusting for national income means comparing countries with the same GDP per person, so differences in wealth can’t explain the link. Income is used in percentage terms, since an extra $1,000 means more to a poor country than to a rich one. p is how likely a link this strong would be if there were really none. Below 0.05 means it is unlikely to be chance. Very small values are written in short form: 1.1e-32 means a decimal point followed by 31 zeros and then 11, so very close to zero. The likely range is where the true figure probably lies, and a range that crosses zero means the link could easily be chance. Countries in the same region tend to resemble each other, so the third figure allows for that, which gives a fairer p. The standard error is the typical size of the error in r. Finally, testing this many pairs means some will look strong by luck alone. A q below 0.05 means this link is unlikely to be one of those.

Alcohol consumption · litres per adult per yearlink with income +0.51 · moderate
Fixed broadband · per 100 peoplelink with income +0.88 · proxy

“Link with income” is how closely each measure tracks GDP per person across countries, from −1 to +1.

Every country as a dot

Alcohol consumption · litres per adult per year →Fixed broadband · per 100 people →016.8052.4Afghanistan: 0.011 litres per adult per year, 0.0801 per 100 peopleAngola: 4.13 litres per adult per year, 0.363 per 100 peopleAlbania: 4.47 litres per adult per year, 24.9 per 100 peopleAndorra: 9.68 litres per adult per year, 52.4 per 100 peopleUnited Arab Emirates: 2.08 litres per adult per year, 40.8 per 100 peopleArgentina: 8.05 litres per adult per year, 26.1 per 100 peopleArmenia: 4.28 litres per adult per year, 20.3 per 100 peopleAntigua and Barbuda: 6.66 litres per adult per year, 10.7 per 100 peopleAustralia: 10.3 litres per adult per year, 36.5 per 100 peopleAustria: 11.5 litres per adult per year, 30.1 per 100 peopleAzerbaijan: 2.49 litres per adult per year, 21.8 per 100 peopleBurundi: 4.16 litres per adult per year, 0.0203 per 100 peopleBelgium: 9.43 litres per adult per year, 44.2 per 100 peopleBenin: 8.83 litres per adult per year, 0.277 per 100 peopleBurkina Faso: 11.3 litres per adult per year, 0.851 per 100 peopleBangladesh: 0.092 litres per adult per year, 8.09 per 100 peopleBulgaria: 11.6 litres per adult per year, 37 per 100 peopleBahrain: 1.25 litres per adult per year, 17 per 100 peopleBahamas, The: 3.65 litres per adult per year, 25.3 per 100 peopleBosnia and Herzegovina: 5.87 litres per adult per year, 29.4 per 100 peopleBelarus: 11.6 litres per adult per year, 36.3 per 100 peopleBelize: 3.67 litres per adult per year, 9.75 per 100 peopleBolivia: 3.59 litres per adult per year, 12.1 per 100 peopleBrazil: 7.7 litres per adult per year, 24.1 per 100 peopleBarbados: 8.22 litres per adult per year, 37.5 per 100 peopleBrunei Darussalam: 0.51 litres per adult per year, 21.2 per 100 peopleBhutan: 0.18 litres per adult per year, 2.92 per 100 peopleBotswana: 7.27 litres per adult per year, 7.44 per 100 peopleCentral African Republic: 1.75 litres per adult per year, 0.0161 per 100 peopleCanada: 9.89 litres per adult per year, 42.5 per 100 peopleSwitzerland: 10.1 litres per adult per year, 47 per 100 peopleChile: 7.56 litres per adult per year, 23.7 per 100 peopleChina: 4.58 litres per adult per year, 47.2 per 100 peopleCote d'Ivoire: 2.85 litres per adult per year, 1.6 per 100 peopleCameroon: 9.6 litres per adult per year, 2.13 per 100 peopleCongo, Dem. Rep.: 1.92 litres per adult per year, 0.032 per 100 peopleCongo, Rep.: 6.05 litres per adult per year, 1.27 per 100 peopleColombia: 4.24 litres per adult per year, 17.2 per 100 peopleComoros: 0.23 litres per adult per year, 0.388 per 100 peopleCabo Verde: 6.01 litres per adult per year, 8.31 per 100 peopleCosta Rica: 3.4 litres per adult per year, 23.3 per 100 peopleCyprus: 6.36 litres per adult per year, 37.6 per 100 peopleCzechia: 12 litres per adult per year, 38.9 per 100 peopleGermany: 11.8 litres per adult per year, 45.6 per 100 peopleDjibouti: 0.38 litres per adult per year, 1.47 per 100 peopleDominica: 5.02 litres per adult per year, 20.9 per 100 peopleDenmark: 9.49 litres per adult per year, 43.4 per 100 peopleDominican Republic: 6.5 litres per adult per year, 11.2 per 100 peopleAlgeria: 0.54 litres per adult per year, 13.3 per 100 peopleEcuador: 2.54 litres per adult per year, 17.2 per 100 peopleEgypt, Arab Rep.: 0.13 litres per adult per year, 11.7 per 100 peopleSpain: 9.16 litres per adult per year, 39.2 per 100 peopleEstonia: 10.7 litres per adult per year, 35.4 per 100 peopleEthiopia: 3.06 litres per adult per year, 0.594 per 100 peopleFinland: 9.08 litres per adult per year, 36.5 per 100 peopleFiji: 3.58 litres per adult per year, 1.8 per 100 peopleFrance: 10.3 litres per adult per year, 48.9 per 100 peopleMicronesia, Fed. Sts.: 2.02 litres per adult per year, 5.82 per 100 peopleGabon: 8.14 litres per adult per year, 4.69 per 100 peopleUnited Kingdom: 10.7 litres per adult per year, 42.2 per 100 peopleGeorgia: 14.4 litres per adult per year, 30.4 per 100 peopleGhana: 4.26 litres per adult per year, 0.665 per 100 peopleGuinea: 0.52 litres per adult per year, 0.00628 per 100 peopleGambia, The: 0.61 litres per adult per year, 0.519 per 100 peopleGuinea-Bissau: 3.73 litres per adult per year, 0.386 per 100 peopleEquatorial Guinea: 6.56 litres per adult per year, 0.101 per 100 peopleGreece: 5.81 litres per adult per year, 44.7 per 100 peopleGrenada: 7.33 litres per adult per year, 29.8 per 100 peopleGuatemala: 1.54 litres per adult per year, 5.34 per 100 peopleGuyana: 5.04 litres per adult per year, 12.9 per 100 peopleHonduras: 3.08 litres per adult per year, 4.58 per 100 peopleCroatia: 7.65 litres per adult per year, 29.6 per 100 peopleHaiti: 3.11 litres per adult per year, 0.307 per 100 peopleHungary: 9.93 litres per adult per year, 37.5 per 100 peopleIndonesia: 0.074 litres per adult per year, 4.92 per 100 peopleIndia: 4.1 litres per adult per year, 3.15 per 100 peopleIreland: 10.8 litres per adult per year, 32.3 per 100 peopleIran, Islamic Rep.: 0.51 litres per adult per year, 12.1 per 100 peopleIraq: 0.24 litres per adult per year, 17.6 per 100 peopleIceland: 7.94 litres per adult per year, 37.5 per 100 peopleIsrael: 2.84 litres per adult per year, 29.2 per 100 peopleItaly: 6.97 litres per adult per year, 31.8 per 100 peopleJamaica: 3.1 litres per adult per year, 16 per 100 peopleJordan: 0.23 litres per adult per year, 7.02 per 100 peopleJapan: 6.38 litres per adult per year, 38.6 per 100 peopleKazakhstan: 4.52 litres per adult per year, 15.3 per 100 peopleKenya: 2.47 litres per adult per year, 3.04 per 100 peopleKyrgyz Republic: 3.63 litres per adult per year, 7.8 per 100 peopleCambodia: 6.67 litres per adult per year, 4.15 per 100 peopleKiribati: 0.72 litres per adult per year, 0.0349 per 100 peopleSt. Kitts and Nevis: 4.69 litres per adult per year, 46.7 per 100 peopleKorea, Rep.: 7.79 litres per adult per year, 47.8 per 100 peopleKuwait: 0 litres per adult per year, 1.01 per 100 peopleLao PDR: 10.8 litres per adult per year, 2.72 per 100 peopleLebanon: 1.26 litres per adult per year, 7.29 per 100 peopleLiberia: 2.86 litres per adult per year, 0.275 per 100 peopleLibya: 0.012 litres per adult per year, 4.52 per 100 peopleSt. Lucia: 9.28 litres per adult per year, 13.6 per 100 peopleSri Lanka: 2.91 litres per adult per year, 8.47 per 100 peopleLesotho: 4.3 litres per adult per year, 0.379 per 100 peopleLithuania: 12.1 litres per adult per year, 27.8 per 100 peopleLuxembourg: 10.8 litres per adult per year, 40.3 per 100 peopleLatvia: 12.9 litres per adult per year, 25.8 per 100 peopleMorocco: 0.5 litres per adult per year, 7.3 per 100 peopleMoldova: 11.1 litres per adult per year, 29.6 per 100 peopleMadagascar: 0.99 litres per adult per year, 0.124 per 100 peopleMaldives: 1.49 litres per adult per year, 19.6 per 100 peopleMexico: 4.79 litres per adult per year, 21.7 per 100 peopleNorth Macedonia: 4.36 litres per adult per year, 29.9 per 100 peopleMali: 5.32 litres per adult per year, 0.774 per 100 peopleMalta: 7.11 litres per adult per year, 44.5 per 100 peopleMyanmar: 1.93 litres per adult per year, 2.87 per 100 peopleMontenegro: 10.3 litres per adult per year, 32.3 per 100 peopleMongolia: 7.68 litres per adult per year, 15.8 per 100 peopleMozambique: 1.89 litres per adult per year, 0.142 per 100 peopleMauritania: 0 litres per adult per year, 0.947 per 100 peopleMauritius: 6.86 litres per adult per year, 28 per 100 peopleMalawi: 3.61 litres per adult per year, 0.0864 per 100 peopleMalaysia: 0.74 litres per adult per year, 13.5 per 100 peopleNamibia: 5.05 litres per adult per year, 2.83 per 100 peopleNiger: 0.13 litres per adult per year, 0.111 per 100 peopleNigeria: 3.78 litres per adult per year, 0.0787 per 100 peopleNicaragua: 3.67 litres per adult per year, 5.78 per 100 peopleNetherlands: 8.71 litres per adult per year, 43 per 100 peopleNorway: 7.38 litres per adult per year, 45.2 per 100 peopleNepal: 1.06 litres per adult per year, 10.1 per 100 peopleNaoero: 2.79 litres per adult per year, 9.96 per 100 peopleNew Zealand: 10 litres per adult per year, 38 per 100 peopleOman: 0.51 litres per adult per year, 11.1 per 100 peoplePakistan: 0.084 litres per adult per year, 1.47 per 100 peoplePanama: 4.66 litres per adult per year, 18.1 per 100 peoplePeru: 6.45 litres per adult per year, 11.7 per 100 peoplePhilippines: 5.66 litres per adult per year, 7.14 per 100 peoplePapua New Guinea: 1.13 litres per adult per year, 0.233 per 100 peoplePoland: 11.7 litres per adult per year, 25.4 per 100 peoplePortugal: 8.88 litres per adult per year, 45.2 per 100 peopleParaguay: 5.62 litres per adult per year, 12.9 per 100 peopleQatar: 1.05 litres per adult per year, 11.8 per 100 peopleRomania: 16.8 litres per adult per year, 35.8 per 100 peopleRussian Federation: 10.5 litres per adult per year, 27.1 per 100 peopleRwanda: 2.87 litres per adult per year, 0.596 per 100 peopleSaudi Arabia: 0 litres per adult per year, 44.1 per 100 peopleSudan: 0.01 litres per adult per year, 0.0604 per 100 peopleSenegal: 0.38 litres per adult per year, 4.04 per 100 peopleSingapore: 1.81 litres per adult per year, 27.8 per 100 peopleSolomon Islands: 1.45 litres per adult per year, 0.107 per 100 peopleSierra Leone: 0.29 litres per adult per year, 0.00227 per 100 peopleEl Salvador: 3.15 litres per adult per year, 12.5 per 100 peopleSomalia, Fed. Rep.: 0 litres per adult per year, 0.723 per 100 peopleSerbia: 7.89 litres per adult per year, 33.4 per 100 peopleSao Tome and Principe: 4.79 litres per adult per year, 2.99 per 100 peopleSuriname: 5.93 litres per adult per year, 18.8 per 100 peopleSlovak Republic: 10.7 litres per adult per year, 33.8 per 100 peopleSlovenia: 10.4 litres per adult per year, 34.2 per 100 peopleSweden: 9.57 litres per adult per year, 40.6 per 100 peopleEswatini: 6.79 litres per adult per year, 2.51 per 100 peopleSeychelles: 10.2 litres per adult per year, 31.6 per 100 peopleSyrian Arab Republic: 0.092 litres per adult per year, 6.86 per 100 peopleChad: 2.91 litres per adult per year, 0 per 100 peopleTogo: 1.44 litres per adult per year, 1.42 per 100 peopleThailand: 7.99 litres per adult per year, 14.9 per 100 peopleTajikistan: 0.74 litres per adult per year, 0.984 per 100 peopleTurkmenistan: 2.62 litres per adult per year, 5.22 per 100 peopleTimor-Leste: 0.17 litres per adult per year, 0.006 per 100 peopleTonga: 0.36 litres per adult per year, 8.17 per 100 peopleTrinidad and Tobago: 6.03 litres per adult per year, 27 per 100 peopleTunisia: 1.71 litres per adult per year, 15 per 100 peopleTurkiye: 1.69 litres per adult per year, 23.4 per 100 peopleTuvalu: 1.26 litres per adult per year, 4.52 per 100 peopleTanzania: 10.9 litres per adult per year, 0.246 per 100 peopleUganda: 11.3 litres per adult per year, 0.208 per 100 peopleUkraine: 9.24 litres per adult per year, 21.7 per 100 peopleUruguay: 5.61 litres per adult per year, 33 per 100 peopleUnited States: 9.9 litres per adult per year, 38.9 per 100 peopleUzbekistan: 2.1 litres per adult per year, 34.7 per 100 peopleSt. Vincent and the Grenadines: 5.62 litres per adult per year, 29.5 per 100 peopleViet Nam: 8.04 litres per adult per year, 23.7 per 100 peopleVanuatu: 2.04 litres per adult per year, 1.16 per 100 peopleSamoa: 2.35 litres per adult per year, 0.878 per 100 peopleSouth Africa: 7.13 litres per adult per year, 5.35 per 100 peopleZambia: 3.62 litres per adult per year, 0.79 per 100 peopleZimbabwe: 2.67 litres per adult per year, 1.94 per 100 peopleAFGANDAREBFACHNDEUNERROUSAUSDNTZAUGA

best-fit line line after adjusting

Four ways to measure the link

MethodrpCountries
Standard (Pearson), not adjusted+0.5949.5e-19182
By rank (Spearman), not adjusted+0.5641.1e-16182
Standard (Pearson), adjusted for national income+0.3761.8e-7182
By rank (Spearman), adjusted for national income+0.2917.0e-5182

The rank version uses only each country’s place in line, from lowest to highest, so a few extreme countries count for less. The adjusted and unadjusted versions use the same 182 countries: those that report both measures and GDP per person. So the gap between them comes from the adjustment, not from a change in which countries are counted. Drop in the size of r after adjusting: +0.218 (a minus sign means it grew).

How solid is it?

Leaving out one country at a time, r ranges from +0.352 (without QAT) to +0.398 (without SAU). The bar above shows that range on a scale from −1 to +1, with the solid line at the full result. The single country that moves r most: QAT (-0.024).

Within each region

Countries are not separate, unrelated cases, and neighbors share a lot. A link that holds inside each region is far more believable than one that shows up only when comparing regions.

nr
East Asia & Pacific27+0.37
Europe & Central Asia49+0.23
Latin America & Caribbean31+0.22
Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan21+0.53
Sub-Saharan Africa46+0.09

By income third

If the link shows up only in the richest third of countries, it is a feature of rich countries, not a general pattern.

nr
Poorest third61-0.21
Middle third60+0.17
Richest third61+0.52

By largest religious group

Countries grouped by a label they share, such as main religion, rather than by a number. Groups of fewer than twelve countries are not shown. These groups differ in income, region and history all at once. So a gap between them is a place to start asking questions, not an answer.

nr
Christians108+0.27
Muslims48+0.17

By last european coloniser

Countries grouped by a label they share, such as main religion, rather than by a number. Groups of fewer than twelve countries are not shown. These groups differ in income, region and history all at once. So a gap between them is a place to start asking questions, not an answer.

nr
France25-0.09
Never a European colony21+0.19
Spain20-0.13
United Kingdom63+0.40

Without outliers (countries far outside the middle half of countries on either measure, by more than one and a half times the width of that middle half): r = +0.376 after dropping 0 countries.

Two series, one country

Both measures over the years for one country you pick. The two charts are stacked so they share only the years along the bottom.

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Over time, within countries

Everything above compares countries with each other at one moment. This section compares each country only with itself over 21years. So a link here can’t come from anything about a country that stays the same, such as its history, geography, institutions or culture.

The link also shows up within countries over time (r = -0.217). It holds even when looking only at changes from one year to the next (r = -0.052). This is the strongest kind of evidence available here: it holds when each country is compared only with itself, and it is not just a product of shared trends.

Across countries (adjusted)+0.376for comparison
Within countries-0.174each country vs itself
…and vs the same year elsewhere-0.217q = 0.001 · 182 countries
Year-on-year changes-0.052q = 0.050
Read with care.
  • Almost all of this indicator's variation is between countries, not within them, so the within-country estimate rests on a small part of the data.

3,215 country-years (one country in one year), 182 countries, 2000–2020, about 18 years each on average. Share of the variation that happens within countries over time: 3% for Alcohol consumption, 36% for Fixed broadband. The margins of error allow for each country appearing many times, and for each year’s value being close to the year before.

Year-to-year changes are a cautious test, not a final answer. Looking only at changes from one year to the next removes each country’s own trends. But it also makes measurement mistakes louder, which pulls the results toward zero. A near-zero result here is weak evidence of no link, not proof.

With one measure years behind the other

0.30−0.3-100+10years Fixed broadband trails Alcohol consumption →lag -10: r = -0.082 (n = 1,429)lag -9: r = -0.106 (n = 1,599)lag -8: r = -0.150 (n = 1,801)lag -7: r = -0.193 (n = 1,981)lag -6: r = -0.230 (n = 2,167)lag -5: r = -0.262 (n = 2,342)lag -4: r = -0.287 (n = 2,531)lag -3: r = -0.295 (n = 2,713)lag -2: r = -0.277 (n = 2,878)lag -1: r = -0.250 (n = 3,049)lag +0: r = -0.217 (n = 3,215)lag +1: r = -0.187 (n = 3,355)lag +2: r = -0.154 (n = 3,465)lag +3: r = -0.113 (n = 3,522)lag +4: r = -0.076 (n = 3,547)lag +5: r = -0.037 (n = 3,415)lag +6: r = -0.013 (n = 3,262)lag +7: r = 0.015 (n = 3,109)lag +8: r = 0.036 (n = 2,945)lag +9: r = 0.048 (n = 2,773)lag +10: r = 0.064 (n = 2,600)

Same year (lag 0): -0.217. A peak away from zero does not show which comes first. These series change slowly — this year’s value is close to last year’s. That makes the curve smooth and nearly symmetric, whatever produced the data. Even a sharp peak at one lag (a gap of some years) would not prove that one measure changes the other.

The largest value on this curve (-0.29 at lag -3) is higher than the same-year one by 0.08. That gap is not a finding. It is the largest of 21 closely related estimates, and picking the biggest of many tests always makes it look bigger. That is exactly why nothing on this site is ranked or chosen by lag.

The data


litres per adult per year
per 100 people		Years
Romania ROU16.835.82020, 2024
Georgia GEO14.430.42020, 2024
Latvia LVA12.925.82020, 2024
Lithuania LTU12.127.82020, 2024
Czechia CZE1238.92020, 2024
Germany DEU11.845.62020, 2024
Poland POL11.725.42020, 2024
Belarus BLR11.636.32020, 2024
Bulgaria BGR11.6372020, 2023
Austria AUT11.530.12020, 2024
Uganda UGA11.30.2082020, 2024
Burkina Faso BFA11.30.8512020, 2024
Moldova MDA11.129.62020, 2024
Tanzania TZA10.90.2462020, 2024
Luxembourg LUX10.840.32020, 2024

World Bank, World Development Indicators
World Bank, World Development Indicators

Sources

Alcohol consumption

Total alcohol consumption per capita (litres of pure alcohol, age 15+)

World Health Organization Global Health Observatory · CC BY 4.0 · updated quarterly

Recorded drinking plus an estimate of unrecorded drinking, per person aged fifteen and over. Ends in 2020. No "better" direction is set, and the reason is the strongest fact about this measure on the site. Of everything here, it is what most separates countries by their largest religion. Alcohol is forbidden in Islam, so a low figure in a Muslim-majority country is religious practice showing up in a health statistic. Calling that end "best" would make this site score religious practice, which it refuses to do everywhere else. Every measure of attendance, prayer, marriage and belief here has no "better" direction for exactly that reason. This is the same fact arriving through a different column. The World Health Organization is right that alcohol carries a real burden of disease, and the site does not dispute it. It declines to turn that into a score for a country, when the thing being scored would largely be how many of its people are Muslim.

Fixed broadband

Fixed broadband subscriptions (per 100 people)

International Telecommunication Union · CC BY 4.0 · updated quarterly

Subscriptions, not people. A household line counts once, however many people use it. A country that went straight to mobile data can be well connected with few of these lines. Internet users, already on the site, is the measure of people.

How this was computed

Data used: most recent value in 2010-2025; values come from 2019–2024. To adjust for income, each measure is first predicted from GDP per person (in percentage terms, on a log scale) with a straight-line fit. Only what is left over is then compared. This is called a partial correlation. The line is drawn the standard way (ordinary least squares), which picks the line that comes closest to all the countries at once. The error margins allow for countries in the same region resembling each other, using 7 World Bank regions. The q-value corrects for testing all 12,497 pairs at once, using the Benjamini–Hochberg method. Underlying data last updated DYB 2024. How the country data works · explore Alcohol consumption and Fixed broadband

This page shows that two measures go together. It does not show that Alcohol consumption changes Fixed broadband, or the reverse. These figures also describe countries, not individual people. See the ecological fallacy.

More links with Alcohol consumption or Fixed broadband