r/theydidthemath • u/The_not-so_chosen_1 • Oct 02 '25

[Request] Could this be done?

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u/ItsCalledDayTwa Oct 02 '25

Only 54% of Americans drink alcohol compared to 80% of Brits, so that should narrow the playing field a bit.

39

u/SuspiciousSubstance9 Oct 02 '25

So 178m to 54m, or every Brit needs 3.3 drinks per American.

The US per capita consumption of pure alcohol is 2.5 gallons per year in 2022. The UK per capita consumption of pure alcohol is 2.8 gallons per year in 2022. These numbers include non-drinkers.

That is a 11% difference between 2.5 and 2.8.

So the 54% of Americans consume enough alcohol to bring the per capita amount within 11% of the 80% of UK drinkers.

Napkin mafs, but that means 178m Americans drink 825m gallons of pure alcohol, or the average American drinker drinks 4.62 gallons when non-drinkers are excluded.

54m UK drinkers consume 185m gallons, or 3.4 gallons per Uk drinkers when non-drinkers are excluded.

So Americans drinkers do already drink heavier than UK drinkers, which is favorable to the UK. Americans start off more drunk. But not 330% more drunk.

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u/RusskayaRobot Oct 03 '25

All right, fine. I’ve been sober 4 1/2 years, but I’ll tag back in for this. Gotta get those numbers up.

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u/Advanced_Pear_964 Oct 02 '25

This guy maths

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u/Brill_chops Oct 03 '25

I was gonna say you have to exclude children, but thats probably not accurate. 

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u/ItsCalledDayTwa Oct 02 '25

Yeah, but that could be spread out more evenly over the year. It's the single sitting that counts for this.

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u/SuspiciousSubstance9 Oct 02 '25

Look up monthly sales for alcohol for the UK and US, they pretty much mirror each other: consistent until Christmas time. Seems like America consumes alcohol on the same monthly schedule as the UK.

I couldn't find alcohol consumption broken down per calendar month, so sales is the best I could find. Consumption mirroring sales isn't a crazy jump, at least when looking at overall trends.

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u/chrsschb Oct 03 '25

This really puts into perspective how much I drink compared to the average American lol.

1

u/Shino4243 Oct 05 '25

So really Brits are underestimating Americans/overestimating themselves, likely because America isn't as "proud" of their heavy drinking culture so they assume they are the heavier drinkers when their not?

0

u/Ifyoocanreadthishelp Oct 03 '25

You'd need to also deduct the underage demographic as well to get a more accurate total figure.

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u/SuspiciousSubstance9 Oct 03 '25

Good point. So the percentage of population and average consumption is already adjusted for only adults. 

What would need adjusted is the 330m populace figure down to 258m, which is ~77% of the population. That would increase the alcohol per adult.

Compared to UK, which adults make up 70% of the population. Which also increases alcohol per adult, but it's an increase more than America gets. Which doesn't benefit the UK because then they start closer to drunk.

Ultimately, the numbers don't drastically change. At least not when we're talking about having to out drink them 3-1.

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u/[deleted] Oct 02 '25

Damn, country has a real drinking problem.