Sugar consumption by country: who consumes the most, and how we know

Ask which country consumes the most sugar and you will find confident lists that rarely agree. The disagreement is not a mystery. Each list counts something slightly different: some count all the sugar a country uses, some divide it by population, some fold in corn syrups and honey, and almost none of them measure what people actually swallow. This page sets out the figures from three international sources, explains what each one counts, and places Canada in that picture with its own national data.

Educational reporting, not personal medical advice.

The short answer depends on the question

In total tonnes, India consumes the most sugar. The United States Department of Agriculture estimates India's human domestic consumption of centrifugal sugar at 30.1 million tonnes (raw value) for the 2025/26 marketing year, ahead of China (16.75 million) and the European Union taken as a bloc (15.9 million). That ranking mostly reflects population.

Per person, the leader changes with the source. In the OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook dataset, which covers 35 individual countries plus regional aggregates, Israel shows the highest sugar consumption per capita for 2024, at 45.3 kg per person, followed by Malaysia at 42.2 kg. In FAOSTAT's food balance sheets, which cover far more countries, the highest sugar supply per person in 2023 among countries of at least one million people appears in Belgium (53.3 kg, raw sugar equivalent), Poland (51.9 kg) and Guatemala (51.4 kg). When FAOSTAT adds corn syrups, other sweeteners and honey and expresses the result as calories, Guatemala (594 kcal per person per day) and the United States (569 kcal) come out on top.

None of these is wrong. They answer different questions, and the honest reply to "which country consumes the most sugar" is to say which one you are asking.

Per-capita sugar consumption: OECD-FAO

The OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook is the joint medium-term market projection published each year by the OECD and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Its sugar series counts sugar used for human consumption in each market and divides it by population. It reports high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) separately, which matters a great deal for North America.

Source: OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2026–2035, dataset "Human consumption" per capita, commodities "Sugar and molasses" and "Glucose and fructose syrups…", kg per person, data year 2024. "Not reported" means the dataset has no HFCS series for that country. Ranks are out of the 35 individual countries in the dataset.

Two patterns stand out. First, the top of this list is not the one most people would guess: no North American country is in the top eight. Second, the HFCS column changes the North American story. Sugar alone puts the United States slightly below Mexico and above Canada, but the United States and Mexico also use a large volume of corn-based sweeteners that a sugar-only ranking leaves out. The Outlook itself notes that in the United States the decline in sugar use "will be less visible because manufacturers continue to use high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in confectionery and processed goods."

France does not appear on its own in this dataset; it is counted inside the European Union aggregate.

Sugar and sweeteners per person: FAOSTAT food balance sheets

FAOSTAT, the FAO's statistical database, builds a food balance sheet for each country: production, plus imports, minus exports and non-food uses, gives the quantity available for people to eat. That availability is then divided by population and converted to calories. It is the broadest country coverage available, which is why it is often the source behind "sugar by country" maps.

Source: FAOSTAT, Food Balance Sheets (2010–), items "Sugar & Sweeteners" and "Sugar (Raw Equivalent)", elements "Food supply (kcal/capita/day)" and "Food supply quantity (kg/capita/yr)", year 2023 (values flagged by FAO as estimates). The first five rows are the highest calorie values among countries with at least one million people, an editorial threshold chosen to keep very small states, where trade flows can swing per-person figures, out of the top of the list.

The calorie column is the one to read when the question is "all sweeteners". It explains why the United States ranks second here even though its raw-sugar figure (33.3 kg) is unremarkable: much of its caloric sweetener comes from corn syrups, which FAOSTAT counts under "Sweeteners, Other."

Total consumption: USDA

When the question is about volume rather than people, the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service is the standard reference. Its Production, Supply and Distribution database reports human domestic consumption of centrifugal (cane and beet) sugar in thousands of tonnes, raw value. Refined sugar is converted to raw value (USDA's conversion table uses 1.07 for refined cane sugar), so these figures are a little higher than the weight of white sugar on a shelf.

Source: USDA FAS, PSD Online sugar dataset (May 2026 release) and "Sugar: World Markets and Trade," May 2026. Marketing years vary by country.

Canada in context

Canada is a useful example of how much the measure matters, because it appears in every source and in its own national statistics.

• OECD-FAO puts Canadian sugar consumption at 21.4 kg per person in 2024, plus 2.3 kg of HFCS.
• FAOSTAT puts Canadian sugar supply at 37.1 kg per person (raw sugar equivalent) in 2023, and all sugar and sweeteners at 443 kcal per person per day.
• Statistics Canada's food availability table puts refined sugar available for Canadians at 28.64 kg per person in 2024 and 27.13 kg in 2025, down from 30.79 kg in 2015. Its experimental series adjusted for retail, household, cooking and plate losses gives 15.93 kg per person for 2025.

The same country, in neighbouring years, ranges from about 16 to 37 kg depending on whether the figure is raw or refined, sugar alone or all sweeteners, and before or after waste. That spread is the most important thing to take from any national ranking.

How this compares with the WHO guideline

The World Health Organization's 2015 guideline recommends that adults and children reduce free sugars to less than 10% of total energy intake (a strong recommendation), with a further reduction below 5%, or roughly 25 grams a day, presented as a conditional recommendation. Free sugars include sugars added by manufacturers, cooks or consumers, as well as those naturally present in honey, syrups and fruit juices.

It is tempting to set a country's supply figure against that threshold, but the comparison is not like for like. The WHO guideline concerns what individuals eat; the figures above describe what a national market supplies, before waste and averaged across everyone from infants to adults.

Methodology and limits

• Availability is not intake. The FAO’s food balance sheet handbook explains that the quantities available for human consumption reflect only what reaches the consumer, and that the amount actually eaten may be lower because of losses in the household, plate waste and food that is thrown away. OECD-FAO and USDA figures are market disappearance estimates built on similar logic. Statistics Canada labels its loss-adjusted series as experimental.
• Raw or refined. USDA reports raw value, FAOSTAT reports raw sugar equivalent, and Statistics Canada reports refined sugar. Figures in different bases should not be placed in the same column.
• Sugar versus all caloric sweeteners. Rankings that count sucrose alone understate countries that rely on corn syrups, notably the United States and Mexico.
• Years and seasons differ. FAOSTAT uses calendar years. OECD-FAO sugar data follow an October–September season labelled with a single year, and USDA uses national marketing years.
• Coverage differs. The OECD-FAO dataset includes 35 individual countries plus regional groups; FAOSTAT covers most countries but does not include every one in this release (Japan, for example, has no 2023 entry in the bulk file used here).

Frequently asked questions

Which country consumes the most sugar per person?

It depends on the source. In FAOSTAT's 2023 food balance sheets, among countries of at least one million people, Belgium has the highest sugar supply per person at 53.3 kg a year (raw sugar equivalent), followed by Poland at 51.9 kg and Guatemala at 51.4 kg. In the OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook, which covers 35 countries, Israel leads for 2024 at 45.3 kg per person, ahead of Malaysia at 42.2 kg. Once corn syrups and other caloric sweeteners are counted, Guatemala (594 kcal per person per day) and the United States (569 kcal) come out on top.

What does sugar consumption per capita actually measure?

Per-capita figures take the sugar a national market supplies for food and divide it by the whole population, from infants to adults. They describe availability, not what each person eats, because household waste, cooking losses and plate waste are not subtracted. Canada shows the gap clearly: Statistics Canada puts refined sugar available at 27.13 kg per person in 2025, but its experimental series adjusted for losses gives 15.93 kg for the same year.

Is there sugar consumption by country data for 2026?

Not as measured figures yet. The most recent country data on this page are FAOSTAT's for 2023, OECD-FAO's for 2024 (from the Outlook 2026–2035, published in June 2026) and USDA estimates for the 2025/26 marketing year (May 2026 release). Statistical agencies need a year or more to compile production and trade, so a 2026 table published today would be a projection rather than a measurement.

Where can I download the FAOSTAT sugar data used here?

FAOSTAT publishes the food balance sheets as a free bulk file, FoodBalanceSheets_E_All_Data_(Normalized).zip, on bulks-faostat.fao.org. To rebuild the table on this page, filter item 2542 "Sugar (Raw Equivalent)" with element 645 for kilograms per person per year, item 2909 "Sugar & Sweeteners" with element 664 for kilocalories per person per day, and element 511 for population. Values flagged E are FAO estimates.

Where to go next

For the historical and regional picture of how refined sugar spread, see sugar, modernization and chronic disease by region. To read the sugar line on a Canadian label, start with the sugar claims dictionary. Our food-type guides trace where added sugar enters ordinary routines, from breakfast cereals and yogurts to sauces and condiments, desserts and baked goods and soft drinks and energy drinks.

Sources

1. OECD/FAO, OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2026–2035 (June 2026), dataset DSD_AGR@DF_OUTLOOK_2026_2035, measure "Human consumption" (kg per person), commodities CPC_235 "Sugar and molasses" and CPC_23210 "Glucose and glucose syrup; fructose and fructose syrup…", year 2024. Data API: https://sdmx.oecd.org/public/rest/data/OECD.TAD.ATM,DSD_AGR@DF_OUTLOOK_2026_2035,1.1/.A.CPC_235+CPC_23210.FO_PC+FO+QC..?startPeriod=2020&endPeriod=2026&dimensionAtObservation=AllDimensions&format=csvfilewithlabels · Report (Sugar chapter, quoted text on HFCS): https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/oecd-fao-agricultural-outlook-2026-2035_47874669-en/full-report/sugar_358565e5.html · PDF: https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2026/06/oecd-fao-agricultural-outlook-2026-2035_5610f218/47874669-en.pdf
2. FAO, FAOSTAT Food Balance Sheets (2010–), bulk download, items 2909 "Sugar & Sweeteners" and 2542 "Sugar (Raw Equivalent)", elements 664 (kcal/capita/day) and 645 (kg/capita/yr), year 2023, population element 511. https://bulks-faostat.fao.org/production/FoodBalanceSheets_E_All_Data_(Normalized).zip · Availability versus consumption: FAO, Food Balance Sheets: A Handbook (Rome, 2001), chapter II, item 11 “Food”: https://www.fao.org/4/x9892e/x9892e02.htm
3. USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, PSD Online, "Sugar, Centrifugal", attribute "Human Dom. Consumption", 1,000 metric tons raw value, marketing years 2024/25 and 2025/26 (May 2026 release). https://apps.fas.usda.gov/psdonline/downloads/psd_sugar_csv.zip · Report: Sugar: World Markets and Trade, May 2026, https://apps.fas.usda.gov/psdonline/circulars/Sugar.pdf
4. Statistics Canada, Table 32-10-0054-01, Food available in Canada, commodity "Sugar refined", kg per person per year, 2015, 2024 and 2025 (both "Food available" and the experimental "Food available adjusted for losses"). https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3210005401
5. World Health Organization, Guideline: Sugars intake for adults and children (2015), https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241549028 · News release, 4 March 2015: https://www.who.int/news/item/04-03-2015-who-calls-on-countries-to-reduce-sugars-intake-among-adults-and-children