Coffee: The Nordic Dimension
Coffee in Nordic countries became popular in the 19th century, as those countries began to tax alcoholic beverages more heavily.
September 29, 2015
1. Among all the countries with at least a million people, more coffee is consumed per person in Finland than in any other country in the world.
2. On average, each Finn consumed 11.4 kilograms (25 lbs.) of coffee per person in 2014.
3. Along with Finland’s neighbors, Nordic countries account for four of the five biggest coffee drinkers in the world.
4. Swedes rank second, imbibing 10.4 kg (22.9 lbs.) per person, while Norwegians, in third place, drank 8.7 kg (19.2 lbs.).
5. Danes (8.0 kg, or 17.6 lbs.), in fifth place globally, were just edged out of the fourth spot by Austria (8.3 kg, or 18.3 lbs.).
6. Germany’s coffee consumption, at 6.3 kg (13.9 lbs.) per person, is the ninth highest in the world.
7. Coffee in Nordic countries first became popular in the 19th century, as those countries began to tax alcoholic beverages more heavily.
8. Including Iceland, the five Nordic countries have a combined population of just 26 million people. Even so, they consumed 4.2 million 60-kg bags of coffee in 2014.
9. That is 10% more than the 3.8 million bags consumed by China and India, whose combined population of 2.7 billion is over one hundred times larger than that of the Nordic countries.