by Oliver Smith, The Telegraph, March 26, 2018
To celebrate a certain country's indepedence day, we've mapped the world according to who eat the most (and the least) meat. The most vegetarian country in the world? That would be Bangladesh, founded on March 26, 1971, where just four kilos of meat are consumed by a typical person in a typical year, according to 2009 figures (the latest comprehensive statistics we were able to obtain) from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
At a glance | Other fascinating facts about Bangladesh
It is followed by India, Burundi and Sri Lanka, while the top 10 is completed by five African countries: Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Eritrea, Mozambique, Gambia and Malawi.
The 20 countries that eat the least meat
- Bangladesh - 4kg of meat per person per year
- India - 4.4kg
- Burundi - 5.2kg
- Sri Lanka - 6.3kg
- Rwanda - 6.5kg
- Sierra Leone - 7.3kg
- Eritrea - 7.7kg
- Mozambique - 7.8kg
- Gambia - 8.1kg
- Malawi - 8.3kg
- Ethiopia - 8.5kg
- Guinea - 8.6kg
- Nigeria - 8.8kg
- Tanzania - 9.6kg
- Nepal - 9.9kg
- Liberia - 10.4kg
- Uganda - 11kg
- Indonesia - 11.6kg
- Togo - 11.7kg
- Solomon Islands - 11.9kg
An average UK resident eats 84.2kg of meat each year, putting it 30th on the list, but it will come as no surprise to discover that the biggest guzzlers of animal flesh are our American cousins. A single US resident consumes, on average, 120.2 kilos - 30 times more than those from Bangladesh.
The tiny Middle Eastern state of Kuwait, surprisingly perhaps, comes second, followed by Australia (no shock there, given all those barbies), The Bahamas and Luxembourg. New Zealand, Austria, French Polynesia, Bermuda and Argentina complete the top 10.
It is interesting to note that several of the most meat-hungry countries are also among the most obese. The US is 12th in that respect, Kuwait 9th, the Bahamas 10th, New Zealand 24th and Australia 26th. Those countries for which no data is available appear in grey on the map.
The 20 countries that eat the most meat
- USA - 120kg of meat per person per year
- Kuwait - 119.2kg
- Australia - 111.5kg
- The Bahamas - 109.5kg
- Luxembourg - 107.9kg
- New Zealand - 106.4kg
- Austria - 102kg
- French Polynesia - 101.9kg
- Bermuda - 101.7kg
- Argentina - 98.3kg
- Spain - 97kg
- Israel - 96kg
- Denmark - 95.2kg
- Canada - 94.3kg
- St Lucia - 93.6kg
- Portugal - 93.4kg
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines - 91.4kg
- Netherlands Antilles - 91kg
- Italy - 90.7kg
- Slovenia - 88.3kg
Vegetarians should take some solace from the fact that meat consumption is declining in half of the countries listed above. Between 2002 and 2009 the amount consumed by US residents fell from 124.8 kilos per person to 120.2, for example, in Luxembourg from 141.7 to 107.9, in New Zealand from 142.1 to 106.7 and in Denmark (previously the world's biggest consumers of meat) from 145.9kg to 95.2kg.
The countries where tourists outnumber locals
A total of 51 countries receive more annual tourists than their total number of residents, with the tiny principality of Andorra topping the charts (you'll need to zoom in to see it). It welcomed 2.36m tourists in 2014, but just 70,000 people call it home. That works out at 33.5 tourists per resident.
Bangladesh, on the other hand, is the least touristy nation on the planet. For every local there is just 0.000776 tourists.
This article was written by Oliver Smith from The Telegraph and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@newscred.com.
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