Wine consumption in Britain increased by more than 500 percent between 1960 and 1980, and it's still increasing. Between 1999 and 2003 alone, wine sales in Britain went up almost 25 percent. In the early 2000s, Britain became the world's biggest consumer of imported wine.
More wine statistics:
- The country that consumes the most wine per person annually is Vatican City, which consumes almost 20 gallons (about 66 liters) of wine per capita. Other top wine-consuming countries are Norfolk Island, France, Luxembourg and Italy, all of which consume more than 13 gallons (50 liters) of wine per capita per year.
- The countries that produce the most wine per year are Italy, France, Spain, the United States and Argentina. World wine production in general decreased slightly between the mid- and late 2000s, but wine production in China specifically went up by almost one-fourth.
- Nearly three times the number of grapes used to make red wine are harvested per year than the number used to make white wine.