Which countries in the balkans are the biggest drinkers?

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Ok_Hamster_1690@reddit

According to per capita, by the https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/field/alcohol-consumption-per-capita/country-comparison/#:\~:text=47

Bulgaria
Slovenia
Romania
Montenegro
Croatia
Moldova
Serbia
Greece
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Albania
North Macedonia

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ZhiveBeIarus@reddit

Is Macedonian this low because it has a large Muslim population?

I have been there multiple times and i didn't notice them drinking any less than the average European.

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Lilitharising@reddit

Definitely not Greece, Greeks don't drink as much as most Europeans do, we prefer to smoke our lungs away.

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ZhiveBeIarus@reddit

All of them excluding Albanians from cities such as Tetovo and Gostivar

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EastNYCertified85@reddit

Albanian from Gostivar here. My family and I may not be the biggest drinkers but we’re damn close.

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Perhaps, i am sure there are Albanians in Polog who aren't particularly religious, but generally speaking Albanians belonging to your subgroup are way more religious than Albanians from Albania, i didn't see a single hijab in Tirana.

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EastNYCertified85@reddit

Yes generally you are right, but remember that not all people wearing hijabs in Gostivar are Albanian. There is a pretty significant Turk population there and they are extremely religiously conservative. Chances are many of the conservative muslims you saw were Turks.

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Lilitharising@reddit

What? Since when are Greeks big drinkers? It was never in our culture. We:re smokers over here.

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ZhiveBeIarus@reddit

Since always, there isn't any European nation that doesn't fit this description, alcohol consumption is over double the global average from Spain all the way to Russia according to all stats.

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Lilitharising@reddit

Nope. Comparing to most of Europe, Balkans included, we are not big drinkers.

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ZhiveBeIarus@reddit

And what is this based on?

People attract people who are similar to them in some way, if you don't drink, your friends and acquaintances likely don't either, just like i drink more than normal people, and so do my friends, doesn't mean the average person is drunk multiple times a week because i happen to be.

There are no stats confirming your claim, we drink as much as you would expect from a random European Christian country, no more or less.

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Lilitharising@reddit

People who use stats in casual conversation most of the time don't know how stats work. Stats are based on research and sampling and they're largely dependant on temporal socioeconomic factors.If you want to die on that hill that's fine by me, but I'm telling you that a drinking culture embeds precisely that: cultural behaviours, consequences and motivations. Source, since you asked about it: PHD, and a vast life experience in both Greece and central Europe in various capacities that complimented a professional lifelong endeavour in humanities and human behaviour.

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ZhiveBeIarus@reddit

I know exactly how stats work, you just dislike the truth because you are a typical woke Redditor.

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Lilitharising@reddit

Sure, pal. Sure.

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ZhiveBeIarus@reddit

Glad you're finally coping..

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Lilitharising@reddit

Far better than you, it seems.

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ZhiveBeIarus@reddit

There's nothing i need to cope about, i am a semi-normal human being, unlike most Redditors.

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Lilitharising@reddit

Quite obviously.

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ZhiveBeIarus@reddit

👍🥰

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Thick_Knowledge5566@reddit

Buddy, I live in Toronto and have met many Greeks. All of them work in the hospitality business and drink a shit ton every day. Opaaaaa

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Lilitharising@reddit

Having met Greek immigrants in Canada doesn't equate to knowing Greeks better than themselves. Allow me to know my own culture better than you. Buddy.

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ZhiveBeIarus@reddit

You have met Canadians, not Greeks, we have nothing in common with woke Canadians.

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Thick_Knowledge5566@reddit

Hhahahaa, their kids are woke Canadians. All of them visit Greece every summer and are very conservative in comparison to the other Canadians here. Probably more religious, too, they go to church every Sunday.

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ZhiveBeIarus@reddit

I am not religious myself, but i am glad to hear they're not woke❤️🥰

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vbd71@reddit

Now c'mon. You drink wine since at least the Mycenaean times, while tobacco came when? 16th century?

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Lilitharising@reddit

We drink alcohol, sure. But we don't have a big drinking culture like the rest of Europe.

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Nothing_Special_23@reddit

And excluding... well pretty much everyone else in the Balkans.

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ZhiveBeIarus@reddit

I have never personally visited any country where didn't consume alcohol regularly, and i have been to every single Balkan country except for Bosnia.

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big_cat112@reddit

And bosnians from Novi Pazar

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vbd71@reddit

And Saudis from Riyadh.

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BarOk3289@reddit

I'd say all. But Serbia and Bosnia alongside Bulgaria especially 😅

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Nothing_Special_23@reddit

What are you even talking about? All three are in the top 10 to drink the least in Europe.

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BarOk3289@reddit

Really? Serbia just can't be the least! Just can't. Consider the rich alcohol consumption culture, the vast variety of local qualitative drinks etc etc... Still Balkans drink a lot and gladly. But do that in quite culturally appropriate way (for any appreciation)

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Nothing_Special_23@reddit

Serbia is the 4th least (after Turkey, North Macedonia and Bosnia). Bulgaria is 5th. What rich alcohol consumption culture? Alcohol in Serbia is hardly present. It was a phenomena for Russians moving to Serbia a few years ago by how little the people in Serbia drink. People in Serbia take one glass of wine and drink it the entire evening, Russians were stunned by that. People only brag about their rakijas which last for years, even decades. Balkans don't drink a lot at all.

The highest alcohol consumers in Europe, Lithuania and Latvia, drink more than 17 liters of alcohol yearly per capita, while Croatia, the highest alcohol consumer in the Balkans, drink less than 3 liters per capita yearly.

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ZhiveBeIarus@reddit

Which Serbia are you living in, the one located in Mars?

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vbd71@reddit

Serbia is the 4th least (after Turkey, North Macedonia and Bosnia). Bulgaria is 5th.

Link or it didn't happen.

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BarOk3289@reddit

Well, per capita maybe... Even then we should differentiate the way statistics is collected. Some people can hide their daily habits when asked about that by sociologists on the field. True, Finland, Sweden, Baltic countries - they are leaders, true. But did you interview so called Russians allegedly wondering about the low consumption of alcohol in Serbia? I have my eyes, my experience, my senses, that's sometimes more relevant than the "amount of alcohol sold in big markets annually ststistics". You yourself told that many produce brandy (rakija), so they consume it. Would the statistics on sells account that? No, it wouldn't. I never drank so much (I mean not necessarily volume/amount but the frequency - daily, by any occasion) as I did while in Serbia (Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia...). I spent there big part of my life, starting from when I was a school student. At the time I was shocked how frequently people drink (but rarely get drunk which is super cool!). But, if we speak of amount of sells per capita - yes, definitely countries you mentioned can be considered as leaders. But maybe it's on account of certain part of population who consume much (I allude on heavy drinkers of course 😁)? I think so. Whilst a lion share of individuals are sober. And many of them never tried through their life. So, I was talking of "normality" of general consumption daily (regardless of the amount consumed). And the South is the leader, Balkans including. But if we speak of the amount consumed - well, the statistics is here. You're right perhaps. But, again, if I (due to some reason) don't want the sociologists know that I smoke, I would never admit that smoke, right? And it'll never be counted into the eventual statistics.

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vbd71@reddit

You're talking bullshit, Bulgarians drink more than the world famous Irish.

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Acceptable-Leg-6402@reddit

Also how you balkan bitches put your flags here

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Acceptable-Leg-6402@reddit

Yes

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Ok_Deal2442@reddit

There we go

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onenormalperson4012@reddit

Statistically Romanians. Apparently worlwide

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IAMTHAT9@reddit

Rakia good, i lost an uncle to that RIP uncle you were a tough one .

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MrSmileyZ@reddit

Let's drink a Rakija in your uncles honour!

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IAMTHAT9@reddit

Ajde!

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mal-sor@reddit

Thats why you never drink it in bars

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MrPetomane@reddit

I have Romanian in-laws and they keep the local liquor store in business

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SomewhereNecessary48@reddit

Has to be Moldova by a huge margin

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H_nography@reddit

Statistically Moldovans inherited both Russian alcoholism and Balkan alcoholism, but if we don't count it gotta be Montenegro. I have never seen people daydrink at 10 am with a cigarette before meeting someone from there, call me sheltered.

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BarOk3289@reddit

Do not generalize please about Russian alcoholism especially from major cities (not countryside of course). Don't employ erroneous stereotypes. Simple fact: I never saw people in big cities of Russia , Belorussia, Ukraine, Poland drinking as much as in the south of Europe (Balkans in the first place, but Iberian peninsula also plus Greece , France...). But if we speak of doomed countryside,then yes.. hillbillies drink daily, correct (as well as in Serbia or Romania or somewhere else)

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LiteratureFew5805@reddit

I can't speak for other Northern Slavs, but alcohol abuse is definitely a big problem among Poles, and it leads to a lot of tragedies. In Poland, there's one liquor store for every 300 people, but only one pharmacy for every 3,000. Binge drinking is how many usually drink.

While people in southern Europe tend to be more chill after alcohol (especially those living in the wine belt), many Poles become aggressive and their mental and psychological issues start to show. A lot of people drink early in the day, even before work. They buy małpki ('little monkeys'), which are small bottles of alcohol - around 3 million of them are sold every day. It's especially common among construction workers. We are an alcoholic society in denial.

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H_nography@reddit

I have been to these places and I can generalize whatever I like.

Moldovans have the soviet style of drinking where it is inappropriate for women to be out and about drinking at brunch but the same women get shitfaced at home, and where men have alcohol with every meal and act like they don't enjoy it and it doesn't make them an alcoholic. Every day worker doing the laying pavement jobs is a functional alcoholic.

Young people who have had these alcoholic fathers that shame people for having a drink casually are now daydrinking and smoking to "normalize" normal consumption and fall into more southern stereotypes instead of considering why is alcohol such an important part of culture anyway.

This is in fact why we have such high numbers of alcoholics. It's been like this for a while very specifically at this crossroads.

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BarOk3289@reddit

First of all, no one will ever take your right to generalize the way you may want, of course bro 🤗. I just meant different thing. I was born in one of the major cities there, and I know what I say (it's just not northern Slavic style to consume alcohol as a part of normal daily culture. Those who do that, they belong to blue collars layer, or much worse like not educated individuals found on the margin of the society. And you're right, there are a lot of such people, no doubts. But in the south Slavic area (all the Balkans except for Albania, but it's a different story) plus generally European South (from Spain across France through Italy up to Romania and Greece), it's their normal lifestyle to consume daily. I can imagine very well a teenager birthday party with only tea ☕ and cookies 🍪 or cake 🎂 in Saint Petersburg or Minsk or Kiew or Warsaw, but I can't imagine such a picture in Belgrade or Plovdiv or Athens or Rome, Madrid etc... Alcohol is in the southerners veins and brain and mind. That's why they drink huge amount of alcohol and still got rarely drunk. They do that even not counting themselves as alcoholics. Just come to the Balkans where every good house owner will cheer you with a strong local brandy (as a normality even in the morning!!). But you can rarely (almost never) see that in the North of Europe (among educated people of course). That's why people in the North, they may get really addicted relatively fast and get easily drunk looking ridiculously even after small amount of alcohol consumed. And then they do continue and continue... Doomed picture of point of no return for them.. But they are real alcoholics, and sidelined by the general educated part of society. Whilst in the European South to drink alcohol is a pure normality. That's the point I wanted to make. Not to deny the presence of addicted doomed heavy drinkers. If you ask me, I'm a liberal cosmopolitan, and for me if people drink, let them drink unless they get antisocial. Hence, for me the southern style of daily consumption is preferred. Because they drink daily and a lot, but rarely get drunk. It's much better than to drink not so often but to get easily drunk starting behaving anti-socially ))

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