Illicit alcohol continues to be a challenge in today’s global alcoholic drinks market. This paper estimates that approximately 22% of total global alcohol consumption is illicit, equivalent to 58 million HL LAE. In value terms, this represents an estimated USD 190 billion in lost sales to the legal industry, and approximately USD 79 billion in foregone excise revenue for governments.

These findings expand the knowledge base established by Euromonitor’s 2018 white paper, which assessed 24 countries across Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe. The central finding of this study, which covers 103 countries across all regions, is therefore not simply the scale, but the persistence of illicit activity in high-risk regions such as sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

This paper provides an updated global estimate and an in-depth understanding of where illicit alcohol is concentrated, why it persists and how stakeholders can better target interventions to specific markets in which it occurs.