Chart of the Day: Filipinos are the Biggest Gin Guzzlers in the world

Interesting data on global alcohol consumption

Filipinos reportedly holds the title as world’s biggest gin guzzlers, according to a recent study. 

Aside from gin, the Philippines ranks third in rum consumption.

From the Economist

ASIA'S growing middle classes are driving demand in the global spirits market. According to IWSR, a market-research firm, consumption last year grew by 1.6% to 27 billion litres—and China, the world’s biggest market, quaffed 38% of that. The national liquor, baijiu, accounts for a whopping 99.5% of all spirits consumed there, so China does not even feature in rankings of the best-known internationally consumed spirits, below. The most popular of these is vodka, mainly because it is drunk in copious amounts in Russia. Russians downed nearly 2 billion litres of the stuff in 2012, equivalent to 14 litres for every man, woman and child. (Unsurprisingly, perhaps, Russians are among the biggest drinkers in the world, according to the most recent World Health Organisation data.) The Filipinos' taste for gin can be attributed in part to good marketing and to the spirit's long-established toe-hold in the local market. Ginebra San Miguel, a firm that makes the world's two best-selling brands, started operations there in 1834.

Philippine gin consumption has been estimated as having a 43.5% of the world market, according to the ginvodka.org

The Philippines is the world’s largest gin market. The Philippines spirits market comprises nearly 50 million cases and is dominated by domestically produced spirits (98%). The Gin market, in which San Miguel is by far the largest brand, is 22M cases (62% of the market) but this is very approximate. In global terms, Philippine gin accounts for 43.5% of the world gin market. Imported gins account for a miniscule proportion of the market but some UK owned gin brands are produced locally.

I wouldn’t exactly equate gin consumption as signs of a “growing middleclass”, since local gin and rum are the cheapest alternative among available alcohol spirits.

I have no data on the domestic distribution of gin and rum sales for both local and international brands, but I suspect that the bulk of the sales from local brands may come from the provinces.

A growing middle class should translate to a shift to pricier alternatives.

By the way, vodka consumption represents as the largest share of alcohol mainly due to Russian consumption as noted above.