Vatican City consumes more wine per capita than any other country

Wine being poured.

ROME (RNS) — Tiny Vatican City, the headquarters of the Catholic Church consumes more wine per capita than any other country in the world, according to information from the Wine Institute, the industry group based in California.

According to the institute’s latest statistics, the Vatican consumed 74 liters of wine per person, about double the per-capita consumption of the Italians, whose country surrounds the 109-acre city-state. A standard bottle of wine is about .75 liters.

While some of that consumption is clearly related to ceremonial Communion wine dispensed during Masses, Italian press reports say it’s more likely because Vatican residents are older (the lack of children are figured into the statistics), are overwhelmingly male, are highly educated and tend to eat communally — all factors that tend to lead toward higher wine consumption.

Another factor: the Vatican’s small size that makes it easy for per-capita figures to be distorted by the activities of a small group or a particular phenomenon. In the case of the Vatican, a single supermarket sells wines almost tax-free.

Luxembourg, another small country — though with a population of 535,000 that’s many times larger than the Vatican’s estimated population of 800 — is No. 2 on the list, with a per capita consumption of around 56 liters per year. But size itself doesn’t seem to determine a country’s or region’s affinity for wine: The microstate of Andorra (46 liters per person) and the isolated French islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada (44 liters per capita), fall far short of Vatican levels. 

Among big countries, France and Italy lead the way, each with little more than half the per-capita consumption of the Holy See.