In comparison, the average ratio across all EU member states was 1.6 percent.

Households' expenditure on alcoholic beverages in Estonia, which totaled €620.1 million, equaled 2.9 percent of the country's GDP last year. Compared to 2015, expenditure on alcoholic beverages grew by €8 million, but its share of total household expenditure declined by 0.1 percent.

Estonia was followed by Latvia, where expenditure on alcohol made up 4.8 percent of total consumption expenditure, and Lithuania, with 4.2 percent. €734.2 million and €1 billion were spent on alcohol in Latvia and Lithuania last year, accounting for 2.9 and 2.7 percent of the GDP, respectively.

Across the EU, households spent 1.6 of their total consumption expenditure on alcoholic beverages in 2016, representing a total expenditure of almost €130 billion euros, equivalent to 0.9 percent of the EU GDP, or over €250 per EU inhabitant. These figures do not reflect alcoholic beverages paid for in restaurants and hotels.

EU households' annual expenditure on alcoholic beverages was roughly equivalent to their expenditure on medical products, appliances and equipment, and slightly higher than what they spent on social protection or education in 2016.