The Countries That Drank the Most Scotch In 2021

As we enter the latter half of 2022, many industries have been forced to recalibrate due to the challenges brought on by the pandemic, from disrupted supply chains to inflated pricing models. While the Scotch industry had not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels, data released earlier this year by the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) demonstrates that last year was the first return to growth for the industry since 2019.

In 2021, the global exports of Scotch grew by 19 percent, skyrocketing the value of the industry well over 5 billion USD for an increase of $847 million in sales over the previous year. In total, it is estimated by the SWA that over 1.3 billion 700 milliliter bottles — the standard bottle size for distilled spirits outside of the U.S. — had been exported last year, amounting to approximately 44 bottles of Scotch exported every second.

In Scotch’s largest market by value, the United States, exports grew by 8 percent, but the return to growth for the industry in 2021 was in particular driven by consumers from emerging markets like the Asia Pacific and Latin America who experienced value increases of 21 percent and 71 percent, respectively.

While industry levels remain 8 percent lower than they were in 2019, the data from the previous year bodes well for the future of Scotch. “The global footprint of the industry in 2021 is a clear sign that the Scotch Whisky industry is on the road to recovery,” explained Mark Kent, a chief executive at the Scotch Whisky Association. “Value and volume are both up as consumers return to bars and restaurants, people return to travel and tourism, and we all return to a degree of normality after a period of enormous uncertainty for consumers and businesses.”

Read on to discover which countries have the largest Scotch markets, in terms of both value and volume.

The Top 10 Most Valuable Scotch Markets

The Top 10 Scotch Markets by Volume