Who Drinks The Most Coffee In The World?
While the United States is by far both the biggest buyer and consumer of coffee in the world, courtesy of their 350,000,000 population. There are actually many nations before them, most notably those Scandinavian, who consume significantly higher amounts of coffee per person.
The story in short, is that Scandinavia overwhelmingly dominate the list for coffee consumption followed by a broader representation from Europe.
The sheer amount of coffee they consume is mostly due to the way with which the culture consumes it. While I was pondering the answer to this question myself, I assumed Italy and Greece would be the highest drinking nations given how integrated espresso is into the culture.
This is however, actually the key variable to why the amounts of coffee drunk per person differs so much. Scandinavians drink their coffee filtered, and will have several cups rather than one. They always have a pot brewing. So the end result is more kilograms of coffee consumed. The countries of the Mediterranean will reliably drink 1-2 espressos per day, some significantly more, this you can be sure. But because a shot of espresso uses less coffee than a strong brew of equivalent serving the end result is explicable Scandinavia.
According to World Atlas, the following are the countries who drink most coffee per person.
What Country Drinks The Most Coffee?
#1 Finland – 12KG
The land of a thousand lakes. These sauna soaked, mild mannered, quiet and lovely folk drink, by far, the most coffee per person in the whole world.
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#2 Norway – 9.9kg
Not only is Norway the most beautiful country in the world, but they are also the worlds second most coffee drinkers! Oslo has a vibrant specialty coffee culture and more broadly all of Norway love their filtered coffee for all occasions.
#3 Iceland – 9kg
Apparently giants love coffee.
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#4 Denmark – 8.7kg
Europes gateway into Scandinavia. I have a special love for Denmark and always have the most amazing time when I visit. Denmark have a very sophisticated market for coffee and high expectations for their daily fix.
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#5 Netherlands – 8.4kg
I was surprised to see the Netherlands crack the top 5. They certainly love their coffee, being home to Douwe Egberts, one of the largest coffee companies in the world. I think their high consumption is chalked up to similar cultural traits shared with Scandinavians.
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#6 Sweden – 8.2kg
Sweden is one of the most incredible countries in the world. I love it here and I love drinking their coffee.
The Swedes most drink their coffee with Fika traditionally, however you will find all homes and offices throughout this beautiful land consistently brewing a new pot as Swedes drink coffee from the minute they wake until the moment they sleep.
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#7 Switzerland – 7.9kg
It is no wonder that the land of mountains and private banks have a taste for one of the worlds more refined drugs. Coffee is drunk heavily in Switzerland, despite the small, and relatively rural population.
#8 Belgium – 6.8kg
The majority of Europes coffee will come through Belgium and it’s Antwerp port. I think the Belgium’s coffee drinking culture is more similar to its Dutch influence than it’s French explaining how they make the list but not France.
#9 Luxembourg – 6.5kg
Luxembourg is a very small and very rich nation of 600,000 people. The fact that Luxembourg make this list while Germany, Spain and France don’t (the majority ethnicities that populate the city) serves to support my claim that high coffee consumption correlates with higher income levels.
#10 Canada – 6.5kg
The only non European country to crack the top 10 list. Canada love their coffee. They drink more in the American style, which means mostly takeaway weak and black. I was surprised to see Canada up here before Australia and New Zealand, but just goes to show there is a big difference between a city drinking lots of coffee and then a whole nation!
Another important factor to consider in measuring this list is the price of coffee. This list suggests to me that the wider, mass consumption of coffee is only applicable to countries with a much higher average income and standard of living. This theory is supported by the fact that countries like Luxembourg, Switzerland, and all of Scandinavia dominate the top 10 list. These are nations who have among the highest average income and standard of living in the world.
Since these figures come from overall coffee consumption divided by population than it is truly astounding just how much coffee the Scandinavian countries consume, because children, who make up between a quarter to half of the population are clearly out of the picture. So you can almost double the absolute figures you see.
Who Drinks The Most Coffee In The World And Why?
While the United States drinks the most coffee in the world as a whole, they do not have the biggest coffee drinking culture. When measured as coffee drunk per person it is Finland who take the number one spot, by quite a long way, as the biggest coffee drinkers in the world.
Finland will consume up to 12kg per person per year. That is a lot of cups of Joe when you consider that this figure is taking into account children who are drinking nothing. So from that we can deduce that Finnish coffee drinkers are going for up to and more than 20kg of coffee per year.
That’s a really nice effort from those sauna loving Fins.
Coffee Consumption In Sweden
In Sweden, “fika” dominates the coffee scene. Fika means, to have a coffee.
With this concept, a pairing with kanelbulle is assumed. Swedes love coffee so much that you can be sure that it is central to most gatherings and social occasions, even at night time.
Many Swedes take their coffee very seriously, to the point where it is not only a beverage in the country, but a way of life. Although coffee can certainly be enjoyed in the comfort of one’s home, alone, coffee is, for the most part, a social interaction. In major cities like the capital of Stockholm, coffee shops, chains, and independent locations alike, can be found in abundance.
Swedes are infamous for having their coffee very strong and very black. I am still overwhelmed by how strong they have it here, I guess that explains why they are the 6th highest consuming coffee nation in the world.
Are you living in Sweden? Check out Koala Kaffe for monthly subscription options delivered to either your home or office the smoothest coffee for your daily fix. Roasted in Stockholm.
