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I've seen this claim a few times around the internet:

The reality is that the average Russian consumes about a pint of vodka a day; or, one-half of a half liter.

Source: Russian Life, 2007

The claim isn't terrible clear about the units. (@ChrisW suggests it means a pint of vodka, which is equivalent to around 250mL of alcohol.) The most generous interpretation is that the average Russian drinks more than 250mL of vodka per day.

Does the average Russian drink more than 250mL of vodka per day?

Oddthinking
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Frames Catherine White
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    Note that a pint is about half a liter, not "half of a half liter" -- that inaccuracy is enough to cast doubt on the whole quote. – Ernest Friedman-Hill Jul 03 '15 at 02:47
  • @ErnestFriedman-Hill the definition of a Pint varies on region, A liquor pint is 375ml for example. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_measurements – Frames Catherine White Jul 03 '15 at 02:58
  • Closely related question: http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/5199/do-russians-drink-as-much-alcohol-as-their-stereotype-suggests?rq=1 – Andrew Grimm Jul 03 '15 at 02:59
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    @Andrew: I think that actually answers the question, after a little calculation. The data there says the average Russian consumes 6.88 liters of alcohol in the form of spirits, per year. Assuming that all those spirits were vodka at, say, 40% alcohol by volume, we get 47 ml of vodka per person per day, a factor of 5 lower than the claimed amount of 250 ml. – Nate Eldredge Jul 03 '15 at 03:12
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    Why use the internationally recognized metric system when there are plenty of other units of measurement to choose from? – gurghet Jul 03 '15 at 04:32
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    @gurghet: Because the original claim was stated in non-metric units, so changing units in the answer would be confusing. – jamesqf Jul 03 '15 at 05:55
  • Australia doesn't have a single standard for a pint of beer. 570mL and 425mL are both common. Why you would chose Australian definitions is unclear. – Oddthinking Jul 03 '15 at 20:44
  • @Oddthinking A pint is approx half a liter; given that vodka is 40% alcohol, IMO *Russian Life* was saying that a pint of vodka is 250 ml alcohol. – ChrisW Jul 03 '15 at 22:06
  • @nomenagentis: This is a common mix-up when people describe statistics. Adam Phelps deals with it in his answer. – Oddthinking Jul 03 '15 at 22:26
  • @ChrisW: An earlier version of the question introduced "Australian pints". There's no such thing. The size of a "pint" glass varies by Australian state (425mL vs 570mL) - and a pint of milk is 600mL. Adam's answer shows that US glasses differ in the definition of pint (from 400mL to 568mL), but in any case a US liquid pint and an Imperial pint differ. In short, pint is not a clear measurement. I edited to move away from pint for clarification. The alcohol percentage of vodka is irrelevant. – Oddthinking Jul 03 '15 at 22:33
  • Re. "The alcohol percentage of vodka is irrelevant" @Oddthinking *Russian Life* mentioned "alcohol" in the previous sentence before the sentence quoted, i.e. "However, Russia's problems regarding alcohol are no joking matter." I said that because the only way I can make sense of halving and halving again is if they're converting a pint of vodka to a quantity of alcohol. Later in the article it says "Of the many brands of vodka, the one most familiar **to Americans** is Smirnoff", but anyway "a pint is about half a liter" isn't very far wrong no matter which kind of pint you're talking about. – ChrisW Jul 03 '15 at 22:46
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    @ChrisW: OH! You are interpreting the statement as "a pint of vodka a day; which is equivalent to one-half of a half liter of pure alcohol". While the claim is poorly worded, at least that has internal consistency. I edited to suggest this. – Oddthinking Jul 03 '15 at 22:55
  • And you guess that "average" is "mean" and not something else like "median"? – GEdgar Jul 04 '15 at 00:38

1 Answers1

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No, it's an exaggeration.

In 2010, Russian males (aged 15+) consumed an average of 23.9 (Confidence interval 21.1–26.8) liters of pure alcohol annually. Including women brings it down to 15.1 (13.3–16.9) liters.(WHO; pg. 5)

(Note that the break-down is 37.6% Beer, 11.4% Wine, and 51.0% Spirits)(same pdf, pg. 13)

So, to be generous, even if we only look at the men and assume all the alcohol they consume is vodka.

Vodka is apparently usually about 40% alcohol by volume. So a liter of vodka would be 0.4 liters of alcohol.

Dividing 23.9 liters of alcohol per year by 40% by volume gives us the equivalent alcohol to 59.75 liters of vodka per year.

Dividing the annual consumption by 365 gets us 163.7 mL of vodka per day.

Even with a generous interpretation of the claim we are still pretty shy of 250mL.

Looking at these US tables (which only apply to US spirits measurements), the glass size falls between a "gill" glass (118 mL) and a "half pint" glass (200 mL) (which is strangely is not half of a (liquor) pint, or half of a US pint or half of an Imperial pint)]

A more accurate (but still generous) version of the claim is to consider all adults, not just men, and discard the 49% non-spirits drinks, but assume all the spirits S are vodka.

15.1 L per year both genders * 51% spirits / 40% by volume / 365 days = 0.050 L = 50 mL.

We are far too shy of the claim for it to be true.

So does...

the average Russian consumes about a pint of vodka a day; or, one-half of a half liter.

No.

Note that "the average Russian" could be describing about the median value, not the average value. In which case, under perfectly ideal circumstances at most double our average, still being too low.

Oddthinking
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Adam Phelps
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  • @Oddthinking Wow, your edit improved the readability a lot. I didn't feel like it was incredibly clear, but I wasn't sure how it could be improved. But you did it. Much better. Thanks. – Adam Phelps Jul 04 '15 at 00:50