This report provides a global assessment of taxes applied to alcoholic beverages in 2024. It is an update to the first assessment undertaken in 2022 (1). It qualitatively compares their design and provides estimates of standardized metrics to measure tax levels across countries. This assessment builds on and complements the World Health Organization (WHO) technical manual on alcohol tax policy and administration (2). It aims to inform policy decisions on alcohol excise taxation and support further research. Alcohol consumption is one of the leading risk factors for noncommunicable diseases worldwide. It is also a risk factor for poor mental health, injury and poisoning (2). While historically it has predominantly been used to raise revenue, excise taxes are an effective tool to decrease the affordability of alcoholic beverages and reduce alcohol consumption and related harms. Taxation is even more effective when paired with other high-impact, population-wide interventions that limit alcohol availability and marketing.

Section 1 provides background on alcohol consumption and its related harms, WHO’s policy recommendation on alcoholic beverage excise taxation, and the importance of assessing the use of such taxes as a policy tool drawing from lessons learned in the monitoring of tobacco taxation carried out by WHO since 2008.

Section 2 presents the global implementation of excise tax policy. Key takeaway from this section:

• As of July 2024, at least 167 countries applied excise taxes to alcoholic beverages at the national level, two did not apply any excise taxes, and another 12 countries banned the use of alcoholic beverages. Wine was exempted from excise taxes in at least 25 countries, particularly in the WHO European Region. These exemptions contradict WHO’s recommendation that excise taxes apply to all alcoholic beverages where they are not banned.

Section 3 provides an overview of the design of alcoholic beverage excise taxes across countries. Key takeaways from this section:

• Volume-based specific excise represents the most-used type of excise tax system applied to beer and wine, while alcohol-content-based specific excise tax systems are the most used for spirits.
• Approximately half the countries that apply excise tax on alcoholic beverages base it on alcohol content for beer and for spirits, either through an alcohol-content based specific excise or tiered excise rates based on alcohol by volume (ABV).
• Among the countries that apply an alcohol-content-based specific excise, or an ad valorem excise tax component, only 8%, 5% and 4% also apply a minimum specific excise tax to beer, wine and spirits, respectively.
• Fewer than one in four countries implementing specific excise tax systems mandate a regular automatic adjustment of tax rates. This means that in most countries these taxes may lose real value over time, as they are likely to be eroded by inflation.

Section 4 briefly discusses the use of other indirect taxes and complementary pricing measures, and is illustrated by country examples.

Section 5 estimates the share of taxes in the retail price for 330 ml of the most-sold beer brand, and 750 ml of the most-sold brand of the most-sold type of spirits. These indicators allow standardized comparisons among countries with varying tax designs. Key takeaways from this section:

• The global median excise tax share is low overall, at 14% for beer and 22.5% for spirits, with significant differences across regions. This is generally very similar to the median values identified in 2022, at 13.4% for beer and 24.8% for spirits.

Section 6 focuses on average tax and price levels. Key takeaways from this section:

• Excise tax levels remain low in many countries. On average worldwide, a 330 ml bottle of the most-sold brand of beer costs US$ 2.47 at purchasing power parity (PPP), of which only PPP $0.52 (21%) is excise tax. For a 750 ml bottle of the most-sold brand of the most-sold type of spirits, the average price is PPP US$ 22.67, of which only PPP$ 6.44 (28%) is excise tax.

Section 7 looks at changes in affordability of beer and spirits between 2022 and 2024. Key takeaways from this section:

• Between 2022 and 2024, beer became less affordable in only 31% of countries, and spirits became less affordable in 22% of countries. Regularly reviewing and adjusting tax policies is important to ensure alcohol becomes less affordable over time.

Section 8 looks at the implementation of revenue earmarking from excise taxes applied to alcoholic beverages. Key takeaways from this section:

• Of the 146 countries that apply excise taxes to alcoholic beverages and for which information on earmarking is available, 28 earmark such revenue for a variety of health programmes, including for universal health coverage, the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases, alcohol control interventions and the promotion of physical activity.

Finally, Section 9 summarizes the main takeaways and provides key considerations to guide policy-makers in improving existing excise taxes on alcoholic beverages in light of available evidence.

• While other perspectives and competing factors have to be accounted for when designing taxation policies, the protection of people’s health should be a key consideration, particularly given the health, social and economic burden associated with alcohol consumption and its related harms.

Technical notes are provided in Section 10, at the end of the report for more information on the methods used in this analysis, as well as the rationale behind the choice of indicators. Detailed results for each country are available in WHO’s Global Health Observatory Website.ix Overall, excise taxes on alcoholic beverages remain underutilized and little progress has been made since 2022. Countries should improve tax design and increase taxes more systematically so that alcoholic beverage products become less affordable and as a consequence the burden of alcohol consumption and its related harms are effectively reduced.