On-premise and retail consumption of alcoholic beverages in Finland decreased in 2025, no estimate of total consumption due to methodological change

03.06.2026 - Based on recorded consumption in Finland, meaning on-premise and retail consumption, alcohol use has continued to decline. In 2025, recorded consumption was around 6.9 litres of 100% alcohol per resident aged 15 and over, which is 4.5% less than in 2024. At the national level, consumption totalled around 33.3 million litres of 100% alcohol.

Retail consumption (shops, Alko and similar outlets) was 4.3% lower than in the previous year. On-premise consumption, meaning alcohol consumed in restaurants, decreased by 4.5%.

Sales of alcoholic beverages decreased in all wellbeing services counties, with the largest decline in Southwest Finland.

Looking at different beverage groups, only the consumption of strong beer increased. Consumption in all other beverage groups was lower than in the previous year.

No estimate of total consumption for 2025

No estimate can be presented for total alcohol consumption in 2025. This is due to a change in the data collection method used to monitor travellers’ alcohol imports and purchases from foreign online stores.

In previous years, travellers’ imports and online purchases have accounted for around 15% of total consumption.

At the beginning of 2025, the data collection method changed from telephone interviews to an internet panel. Data collected using different methods are not comparable, and they cannot be combined into a reliable overall estimate.

“Total consumption cannot now be estimated because the data basis for travellers’ imports and online purchases is not comparable with previous years. This will break the time series, at least for the years 2025 to 2027 as things currently stand,” says Marke Jääskeläinen, Development Manager at THL.

THL has examined the differences between the old and new data collection methods. According to the review, the estimates produced by the methods differ significantly from each other, and the difference cannot be interpreted as a real change in consumption.

“The observed differences are probably not due to changes in people’s behaviour, but to the change in the data collection method. For this reason, the 2025 level cannot be reliably assessed in relation to previous years.”

In future, data on travellers’ imports and online purchases will be published in separate reports, but for the time being they will not be included in Finland’s official statistics.

Domestic on-premise and retail consumption statistics continue to reliably describe the trend

Although there is no estimate of total consumption, the data on domestic on-premise and retail consumption are high-quality and comprehensive.

“There have been no changes in the data collection for the statistics that monitor the consumption of alcoholic beverages in Finland. The data are collected and published as before, and they can be used to reliably follow the direction of alcohol consumption in Finland,” says Jääskeläinen.

Domestic sales of alcoholic beverages make up the majority of alcohol use in Finland.