Americans Drink 872 Million Gallons of Wine Each Year

While there are a number of regions around the world that are known for producing delicious wines, Americans appear to be drinking the majority of it. According to Decanter, the International Organisation of Vine & Wine (OIV) compiled its annual report and found that the world drank 23.4 billion liters—or just shy of 6.2 billion gallons—of wine in 2020. Of that, Americans imbibed in 872 million gallons of their favorite vinos, putting us in the top spot for wine consumption.

Other people across the globe enjoy a good glass of wine, too. In second place was France, where 652 million gallons of wine were enjoyed in 2020. Italy, Germany, and the U.K. which all saw growth in wine consumption in 2020, took the next three spots. China came in at number five, but the country's overall wine consumption actually dropped by a rate of about 17 percent. Dr. Qin Ma, a viticulture professor at the China Agricultural University, previously told Forbes that wine is most commonly consumed in bars and restaurants, so the decline is largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Russia, Spain, Argentina, and Australia rounded out the top ten list.

But with our own vineyards across the country and a clear appreciation for wines from around the world, there's no denying that those in the United States love a good glass of vino. "The U.S. easily tops the list of countries that drink the most wine," OIV shared in a statement. And that 872 million gallons of wine we drink every year has actually been our national average since 2019.

As for which country drinks the most wine per person, we actually don't hold the top spot—according to Decanter, the average American drinks 3.2 gallons of wine each year, while those in Portugal drink over 16 gallons annually. In Luxembourg, citizens drink 14.6 gallons of wine; France and Italy trail behind at 13.2 and 11.5 gallons per person, respectively. So while we might drink the most wine as a full population, each one of us is actually drinking far less annually than those living in other countries.