Thais ranked as fourth heaviest drinkers in the world

[kinmaew]

At least the Thais have achieved something on their own.

[GAZZPA]

Don't get excited everybody, please remember that 87% of all statistics are made up.

99 percent of the statiticians were Brits.....and they were all drunk!

probably true, Brits can still be successful statisticians when drunk because everyone knows they have superior intellect.

[ozyjon]

After being in a relationship with a Korean lady for over 5 years i learnt about Korean culture and the work ethic culture, most similar to the Japanese also, Koreans worked for a company 5 days per week, that;s what they were paid but they would also work Saturday for free as giving something back to the company (that extra 10% in the giving 110%) they were also expected to work back late without notice and have dinner with the bosses (entertain) after work,, i remember my girlfriend at the time was about 23 years old and was close to an alcoholic, the Soju and also the whisky consumed was astranomical, it sickened me to see these young girls secretaries being forced to laugh and smile and getting intoxicated to entertain the old men, the bosses and if they didn't do it they would lose their job,, i would wait outside the restaurants my girlfriend went to after work and waited for her (she didn't want to be party to this) but it was the culture and i would wait outside and she would point to me every time some old guy tried to touch her, i hope it doesn't catch on here but the Thais i know (the ladies) start the whisky for breakfast until they go to sleep so it happens in many places.

[slipperylobster]

Don't get excited everybody, please remember that 87% of all statistics are made up.

99 percent of the statiticians were Brits.....and they were all drunk!

probably true, Brits can still be successful statisticians when drunk because everyone knows they have superior intellect.

I suppose they are the only ones that know for sure..

[Alwyn]

Don't get excited everybody, please remember that 87% of all statistics are made up.

99 percent of the statiticians were Brits.....and they were all drunk!

Actually it was Einstein who made that comment on the internet last week.. One thing I do know is that anybody drunk or otherwise is probably a better statistician

than TAT..

[how241]

I wouldnt put too much thought into anything Euromonitor produces to be fair, made up most of it.

In a proper table half of Eastern Europe would rank above Thailand.

+1...Poland is a big Vodka drinking country.

[unanimosity]

I wouldnt put too much thought into anything Euromonitor produces to be fair, made up most of it.

In a proper table half of Eastern Europe would rank above Thailand.

Especially when you consider those Thai shots are diluted about 50:1 with water and ice.

[cyborgx]

Sounds a load of B*ll#ck$ to me...... How did they get their stats?

Asking people in the street, and up in remote villages?

Did they use government customs &Excise/tax data for drinks produced for local consumption + imported? Yeah right, like these countries tax figures are going to be accurate.....

Any inclusion of all the illegally produced alcochol such as Lao Kow?

Germans with their beer, and French with their wine with every meal, don't even get a mention?

Alcohol can be a luxury product, or the cheapest drug, depending upon your poison, but it looks obvious that the Asian team of stat collectors were producing highly dubious numbers. So nothing new there either....

[connda]

Forth heaviest drinkers. Second deadliest roads in the world. Come to Amazing Thailand for a vacation?

[AloisAmrein]

They forgot the Aussies.

[cmiuc]

i can believe this... where have you gone where there is not drinking? songkran the epitomy of alcoholism... i went out one day for songkran.. and came back so smashed because everywhere you go , people are forcing the drink on you...to me it is like competing to see who can make the most people drunk... i went out with a girl today... for lunch... and she had to have 2 bottles(750ml) of leo beer... and everynight she drinks so much beer..she told me she drinks 16(750 ml) beer a night... damn.. i can't even do that... and who loves a hangover... so... while they are trying to crack down... people still do more... it is quite amazing and with a recession coming... what does that do? ah, increase the drinking to fight depression... so TV and other media.. are saying what is really true.

[GAZZPA]

Don't get excited everybody, please remember that 87% of all statistics are made up.

99 percent of the statiticians were Brits.....and they were all drunk!

probably true, Brits can still be successful statisticians when drunk because everyone knows they have superior intellect.

I suppose they are the only ones that know for sure..

Quite so, it is beyond all other nations to comprehend such a thing.

[skorchio]

Absolute bolox, Irish easily outscore Thais in this regard, and I would like to further claim we beat em across the board on all alco bevs, beers, spirits, wines and kiddy alcopops. Whoever wrote this was pissed.

[RichBKK]

Curious really as extended family of my wife don't touch it. Largely middle class, traditional types yet at gatherings before I had to stop due to illness I was generally the only one who would have a few Leo's here and there or a Heineken or two out in a restaurant. Teenagers and young adults don't drink either

Though seen people here drinking beer at 7 in the morning in garages and other workplaces so maybe it's atypical but from what my wife says there isn't really so much of a drinking culture as there is in the west amongst Thais in general

[northernjohn]

Progress under the Shinawatra clan. I was told they were 6 when I came here.

[deepcell]

I doubt South Koreans drink more than Russians!

[majhiggins]

Absolute bolox, Irish easily outscore Thais in this regard, and I would like to further claim we beat em across the board on all alco bevs, beers, spirits, wines and kiddy alcopops. Whoever wrote this was pissed.

Peter Griffin, on Family Guy: "Drunks outnumber people 2 to 1 in Ireland."

[GAZZPA]

Brilliant result for Thai's...

So the legacy so far of this government,,

increase in drinking problems

collapse of the rice trade

Huge debts over failed rice scheme and farmers not paid

Car buy out scheme looming as next unpaid cash to the masses

recession is coming (or already here) in what is mostly a buoyant Asia

potential downgrade by the US for the increasing human trafficking problem

tourist industry in serious decline

car sales in massive decline

fall in foreign investment

property market faltering

accusations of high level corruption

Mass protests with both adults and children being killed

dissolving of parliament

failed general election

I am sure I have missed many.. Does anyone really take the government seriously anymore? Surely now everyone can see enough is enough.

[sandhurstmolonski]

Curious really as extended family of my wife don't touch it. Largely middle class, traditional types yet at gatherings before I had to stop due to illness I was generally the only one who would have a few Leo's here and there or a Heineken or two out in a restaurant. Teenagers and young adults don't drink either

Though seen people here drinking beer at 7 in the morning in garages and other workplaces so maybe it's atypical but from what my wife says there isn't really so much of a drinking culture as there is in the west amongst Thais in general

I would Agree with This ..Plus there is a such a high percentage of Women who do not drink at All .

What I do find Hard to Believe is that Australia is No 44 ?? ( Although I wish it were True )

Although I appreciate my Sample evidence is Small , and only gathered from personnal experience , when I fly back from Bangkok

to Melbourne , and I make my way back to Melbourne Centre sometimes at 1 or 2 am , I find literally no Sober people , now although

this is the " Party " group , Australians on the whole drink way too much . I find the trip back far more Intimidating than pretty much any

part of Bangkok .

[Seastallion]

Explanations for every one:

The studies was about "shot of liquor" that is to say "strong alcohol in one shot" not general consumption of other alcohols at all !

not beer for instance or wine, easy to understand when reading this sentences: Despite Britain's international reputation for heavy drinking, the UK was only the 20th heaviest drinking nation when it came to shots. However, while the South Koreans are the heaviest drinkers when it comes to hard liquor, they are 13th heaviest drinkers overall, according to the World Health Organisation.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2551059/South-Koreans-drink-TWICE-Russians-five-times-Brits.html

So the journalists are incapable to read an article properly here is the link to alcohol consumption per countries of course Thailand is not number 4, or yes, but only for "shots" in this survey.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_consumption

If no one gives a link to the study its for the simple reason that it is not free, one have to buy it!

That makes sense. That's why the article said 4.5 shots. It adds up too because of the high tourism....many young tourists will have shots. And soju in S. Korea is drunk as shots.

Thanks for clearing that up

[techboy]

Trash article. Speaks as though Euromonitor is a final word but does not give the slightest hint as to how they arrived at these dubious ratings.

And what the frig does Songkron have to do with it? This piece had to have been written by a 6th grader- and not a very sharp one at that.

[bander]

Thailand, the hub of heavy drinkers

[northernjohn]

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Explanations for every one:

The studies was about "shot of liquor" that is to say "strong alcohol in one shot" not general consumption of other alcohols at all !

not beer for instance or wine, easy to understand when reading this sentences: Despite Britain's international reputation for heavy drinking, the UK was only the 20th heaviest drinking nation when it came to shots. However, while the South Koreans are the heaviest drinkers when it comes to hard liquor, they are 13th heaviest drinkers overall, according to the World Health Organisation.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2551059/South-Koreans-drink-TWICE-Russians-five-times-Brits.html

So the journalists are incapable to read an article properly here is the link to alcohol consumption per countries of course Thailand is not number 4, or yes, but only for "shots" in this survey.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_consumption

If no one gives a link to the study its for the simple reason that it is not free, one have to buy it!

That makes sense. That's why the article said 4.5 shots. It adds up too because of the high tourism....many young tourists will have shots. And soju in S. Korea is drunk as shots.

Thanks for clearing that up

I find it hard to believe that Thailand is 77th on the list.

[Thai at Heart]

One wonders what the criteria were for this ' study ' . It is absurd; whilst i could accept the S Korea could make out a case, alcohol consumption is easily highest per capita in Europe in general and Eastern Europe in particular, based on many studies. As incomes rise in Thailand so will alcohol consumption but it would take years for this to happen. Given the culture here where so many people do not drink at all, even socially, this is not likely. A far, far greater cause for health concern as incomes and living standards rise is the likelihood that Thailand and other parts of Asia will suffer a fast food/ processed food fuelled obesity epidemic that will begin to mirror the disasters now being realised in the West. The overfeeding of children with inappropriate food and drinks is already rampant among the emerging middle class in Thailand and worryingly the very great majority see no problem with this, in fact the complete opposite. Alcohol could be a problem but food will be the ultimate killer.

Don't know which part of Europe you live in, but most of the adult drinking I see here is a couple of pints a fee days a week or a glass of wine with dinner.

I would estimate my alcohol consumption and those around me in the UK is 60% less than Thailand. Its basically expensive to drink a lot here.

Can't think the last time as a family we sat down and did a barbecue in the UK where we got cool boxes full of beer and drank the whole day, as families in Thailand do. Yesterday was a holiday. Park full of people, not one beer to be seen.

Thais drink a lot, also, a lot of whisky and other shorts.

[thailiketoo]

One wonders what the criteria were for this ' study ' . It is absurd; whilst i could accept the S Korea could make out a case, alcohol consumption is easily highest per capita in Europe in general and Eastern Europe in particular, based on many studies. As incomes rise in Thailand so will alcohol consumption but it would take years for this to happen. Given the culture here where so many people do not drink at all, even socially, this is not likely. A far, far greater cause for health concern as incomes and living standards rise is the likelihood that Thailand and other parts of Asia will suffer a fast food/ processed food fuelled obesity epidemic that will begin to mirror the disasters now being realised in the West. The overfeeding of children with inappropriate food and drinks is already rampant among the emerging middle class in Thailand and worryingly the very great majority see no problem with this, in fact the complete opposite. Alcohol could be a problem but food will be the ultimate killer.

Don't know which part of Europe you live in, but most of the adult drinking I see here is a couple of pints a fee days a week or a glass of wine with dinner.

I would estimate my alcohol consumption and those around me in the UK is 60% less than Thailand. Its basically expensive to drink a lot here.

Can't think the last time as a family we sat down and did a barbecue in the UK where we got cool boxes full of beer and drank the whole day, as families in Thailand do. Yesterday was a holiday. Park <deleted> of people, not one beer to be seen.

Thais drink a lot, also, a lot of whisky and other shorts.

Budweiser $17.99 24 bottles Florida.

[Scott]

I've lived in Thailand for quite a while and the people around me don't drink a lot. I have lived in several different locations around Bangkok and of the Moo Bahn's I've lived in, virtually none of my neighbors were drinkers. When I've been upcountry, it seems that villagers drink more, but since I don't live there and don't see them all the time I can't say.

I think we have to be careful about making generalizations, because I seldom see Thai women drink. A few do, but a lot don't.

When I see drinking, such as at one of those 'housewarming', blessing things, the men who drink seem to take it pretty seriously. There aren't necessarily a lot of them, but once the monks are done with the blessing, they start on the spirits and drink hard and heavy.

Most of my Thai friends seldom drink, but if they do they tend to get very drunk. It's not a nation that seems to be much into what can be called 'social drinking'.

[Eliot Rosewater]

This is a bit like an American team being the World Champions at baseball when only two countries compete.

There is no such thing as a world championship of baseball

Poor attempt at America bashing:blink:

Sent from my GT-I9300T using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[recycler]

Just back from a monks ordination party and I can fully relate to this news.

I couldn't keep up with the enormous amounts of alcohol consumed from early morning to late night!

Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[Chicog]

That soju is wicked sh*t though, you can drink it quite easily, then someone comes up and smacks you in the head with a baseball bat and disconnects your legs from your nervous system.

[heybuz]

This is a bit like an American team being the World Champions at baseball when only two countries compete.

if your talking about the world series of baseball that was named after a newspaper that sponsored baseball in the u.s the papers name was The World,hence the world series . and while I'm at it prior to the american civil war the most popular sport in the u.s was cricket getting up to 60000 spectators a match, also the first test match played between any two nations was between the u.s and canada. sorry i got carried away and no I'm not a yank

Edited April 21, 2014 by heybuz