What is the world’s drunkest city?
Booze is the world’s great unifier, such that wherever you travel on the planet, there’s always somebody looking to get pissed, with even dry countries seeing expats hiding homemade alcohol in their houses.
For as long as we’ve been around, people have been finding ways to get drunk, with China being the first country to invent alcohol, where it is believed that a fermented drink made from honey, rice and grapes was first created around 6,000 BC. A distinct part of the human condition is wanting to get off your box, and wherever you travel in the world, it’s always worth learning the essentials in their language: you need to know ‘hello’, ‘thank you’ and ‘two beers, please’.
As somebody who has partaken in liquid refreshments across the world, I’m interested in finding out the answer to one burning question, which is identifying the city that is the drunkest on the planet. Bring a Briton, you’d like to think that we’re near the top of the charts, with pints our national currency and many of us enjoying spending evenings in dimly lit boozers, supping on ales and shooting the breeze with friends.
However, it’s not the capital of London, which surprisingly ranks second, a shock otherwise, given how poor nightlife has become over the past decade. However, the nation’s most renowned party cities aren’t at the top either, wherein Manchester has a great nightlife, but it only ranks third, while Geordies, who love going out on the razz in freezing conditions, come in at a lowly ninth. The number one city in the UK is Bristol, and as somebody who spent a decade living there, I wholeheartedly agree; cider and drum and bass are both iconic Bristolian institutions, and reasons why alcohol consumption is so high in the city.
On a global level, Bristol isn’t close to the shop, even with Britain’s boozing, and much like the country as a whole, it is a dismal reflection of what it used to be.
Our friends across the Irish Sea are just outside the top ten, and you can’t blame them; if we had invented Guinness, we’d be up there too. They know how to drink in Dublin, but if we’re honest, it’s not the best place to get drunk, because does anybody really want to pay nine euros for a Guinness in Temple Bar while listening to a 60-year-old from Wisconsin telling you that he’s Irish, despite having never left the US before.
So, what is the drunkest city?
It’s Europe that leads the way when it comes to getting pissed, with Kyiv, Vienna and Helsinki forming the back end from ten to eight, respectively.
Then the Germans come to play, seeing Munich, home of pilsner, with beerhalls and steins on every corner, at seventh, Berlin sixth and Frankfurt fifth. There’s not much more that can be said about Berlin, which is unarguably the greatest party city on the continent, and Frankfurt, an underrated city with a beautiful river and skyline, also boasts a devilish drinking culture. There aren’t many better places to drink in Europe.
Next up, we have Belgrade, and the Serbs know how to drink, with the capital the place to be for beer, vodka and whatever else. Drinking along the Sava is a treat in summertime, and Skadarlija is a great neighbourhood to booze too, an old bohemian district with some incredible hidden spots.
The Poles have the two and three spots, with Warsaw ranking third and Krakow ahead of it. As one of Europe’s premier stag and hen-do locations, it’s no shock that alcohol consumption is high in Krakow, with the average person there drinking 33.5gallons (almost 127litres) of alcohol per year, and with Tyskie and Zywiec on draft, you can’t blame them.
Number one, and continuing the stag-do theme, is the continent’s number one pisshead location, a country where alcohol is king, and that’s the capital of Czechia, Prague. It’s cleaned up its act somewhat, but it’s still a hotbed for getting hammered and partying, with clubs rammed every night of the week, and the average person in Prague sinking a staggering 38gallons (almost 144litres) of beer per year.
