Germany: Alcohol prices well below EU average

Alchoholic beverages are cheaper in Germany than many of its European neighbors, figures from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) released on Monday for "Dry January" show.

Consumption remains high despite declining, and health experts say the only safe level of alcohol is none, while higher taxes could reduce use.

In October 2025, alcohol prices in Germany were 14% below the average for the EU's 27 member states.

Finland had by far the highest prices from a sample of 10 European countries, with alcoholic drinks costing 110% more than the EU average.

Only in Italy are alcoholic drinks even cheaper across other European countries included. Customers there can buy them at prices 19% below the EU average.

In Finland, by contrast, consumers had to pay more than twice the EU average. Denmark (123% of the average price) and Belgium (113%) followed.

The rate of alcohol consumption in Germany remains high, with 11.2 liters (0.32 gallons) of pure alcohol drunk per person aged 15 or more in 2022, according to the World Health Organization.

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This is, however, a drop from the 12.1 liters per person consumed 10 years earlier, and put Germany in 9th position in a list of the heaviest drinkers in the EU in 2022, along with France and Portugal.

Heading that list by far was Romania, with a per capita annual consumption of 17.1 liters of pure alcohol.

Latvia followed with 14.7 liters and the Czech Republic with 13.7 liters. In the high-price countries Finland and Denmark, per-capita consumption amounted to 9.5 and 10.0 liters of pure alcohol, respectively. People in the Mediterranean countries were more restrained: Greece (7.0 liters per capita), Malta (6.2 liters), and Cyprus (5.2 liters).

Addiction researchers observe a long-term decline in per-capita consumption in Germany, albeit from a still high level. "Men in particular drink less than they used to — women not necessarily," said expert Carolin Kilian from the Center for Interdisciplinary Addiction Research (ZIS) at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf. Alcohol consumption is also declining among very young people aged between 12 and 25.

But while Germany may be one of the cheapest places in the EU to buy alcoholic drinks, that is not the case for soft drinks, which cost 2% above the EU average.

This is still quite low compared with Latvia, which has a high sugar tax and where nonalcoholic drinks are a whole 46% over the EU average.