According to a new study by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, Korea only ranks 11th amongst 16 surveyed nations, for alcoholic consumption. How can this be? Drinking is supposed to be our thing! Like speed skating (curse you Ohnooooooooo!), Starcraft, and cloning… well the first two is definitely our thing.
According to the study, Koreans over the age 15, consumed an average of 8 liters of alcohol per person in 2007. Korea peaked in 1988 with 9.5 liters. Ireland and the Czech Republic took first and second respectively, with 13.4 and 12.1 liters.
Apparently the whole idea that Koreans could drink a lot, came from an inaccurate study by the World Health Organization in 1999, which ranked Korea 2nd in the world per capita with 14.4 liters consumed in 1996. However, in the WHO study, ethyl alcohol created from fermented cereals was inaccurately counted as an alcoholic beverage, skewing the numbers immensely.
Maybe all of this is a good thing. Some of us just can’t live up to that expectation. Wasn’t it depressing to know that you just weren’t good at math, no matter what your skin color said? And this isn’t something to be proud of anyhow. So I guess 11th out of 16 isn’t too bad… as long as we beat Japan though right? Right?
