The Country Similarity Index attempts to quantify how similar countries are to each other relative to other countries. The index is a statistically-based way to measure this. 20% of the index is based on culture. 10% of a country’s culture score (2% of the overall Country Similarity Index score) is allocated for narcotics use. This includes alcohol consumption, illicit drug usage, and smoking rate. The following is an explanation on how they were calculated:
Drug Habits
Another way that the behavior of countries varies is their drug habits. The Middle East and North Africa have some of the highest rates of drug use, despite extreme punishments for drug users and traffickers. Sub-Saharan Africa has some of the lowest rates of drug use. This is in part due to the fact that this area is poorer than others and as a result cannot afford to buy drugs in the first place.
The Global Change Data Lab was the source of the data:
https://ourworldindata.org/illicit-drug-use#prevalence-of-drug-use-disorders
The countries were categorized into the following categories by percentage of people with drug use disorders:
0.4-0.6%, 0.6%-0.8%, 0.8-1.2%. 1.2-1.6%, 1.6-2.2%, 2.2-3.0%
Smoking Habits
In general, the amount of smoking has declined rapidly over the past few decades. Still, there are many countries with high rates of smoking. In general, Eastern European countries have the highest rates, with Belarus having the highest. While Mauritania has the lowest rate of smoking in the world, in general, Sub-Saharan Africans tend to smoke the least amount of cigarettes.
The American Cancer Society was the source of the data:
https://tobaccoatlas.org/topic/consumption/
The countries were categorized into the following categories by average number of cigarettes smoked per year per person:
0-250, 250-500, 500-1000, 1000-1500, 1500-2250, 2250-3000
Alcohol Rate
Religious predominately Muslim countries tend to have the lowest rates of alcohol consumption, since Islam prohibits alcohol. In many Muslim countries it is banned. In contrast, Europeans tend to drink the most alcohol per person. According to the data, Romania has the highest rate of alcohol consumption in the world.
The World Health Organization was the source of the data:
https://ourworldindata.org/alcohol-consumption
The countries were categorized into the following categories by liters of alcohol consumed per person:
0-2.5, 2.5-5, 5-7.5, 7.5-10, 10-12.5, 12.5-15
Alcohol Type
Beer and spirits are the two most commonly consumed types of alcohol across the world. Wine is most often consumed in Southern Europe, although it is very popular in Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay as well. Sake (made of fermented rice) is more prevalent in East Asian countries, especially Japan. Liqueurs, spirits flavored with sugar, fruits, herbs, and spices, are most typical in Sub-Saharan Africa. Some countries drink so little alcohol that they are categorized as none instead.
The World Health Organization was the source of the data:
https://www.who.int/substance_abuse/publications/global_alcohol_report/msb_gsr_2014_3.pdf
Alcohol types were categorized into the following categories:
Beer, Wine, Spirits, Liqueur, Sake, None