No reliable statistics exist for worldwide liquor production and consumption. The great variations in alcohol concentrations of various liquors make simple addition a misleading process for determining alcohol amounts. According to the Brewers Association of Canada, a survey of 32 nations shows that despite its higher concentration of alcohol only about one fourth of the alcohol consumed is in the form of liquor. Beer and wine are the first and second greatest sources of alcohol. The United States ranks 18th in total alcohol consumed per capita--about 2.3 gallons (8.6 liters) per year, slightly below the 32-nation average. For alcohol consumed from liquor, the United States ranks 8th with .85 gallons (3.2 liters), somewhat higher than the average .66 gallons (2.5 liters).

The top five nations for per capita consumption of alcohol in liquor are Luxembourg, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. The lowest five nations are Mexico, Israel, Portugal, Australia, and Austria. In the early 1980s in the United States, about 440 million gallons (1.7 billion liters) of liquor were sold annually, slightly more than 2.5 gallons (9.5 liters) per adult. This is about 8 percent lower per capita than in the early 1970s. Federal, state, and local governments collected more than 6.5 billion dollars each year in taxes.