How many kilograms of rice do people in Africa eat every year?
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Rice is a common staple food in most Asian countries. Not very surprisingly, Asian countries dominate the top of the per capita rice consumption. But there are also several African countries that consume a large amount of rice per capita. Although the global top 9 consists completely of Asian countries, the global top 20 has 8 African countries in it.
Africa probably has the most interesting geographical pattern in the world when it comes to rice consumption. For the vast majority of Africa, rice consumption is not very high (below 25 kg per capita). But there are two areas in Africa where rice consumption is very high.
Western Africa has one of the highest per capita rice consumption in the world. With many west African countries consuming more than 50 kgs or even more than 100 kgs per capita every year. Guinea is the biggest per capita consumer of rice in Africa and the global number 10. Sierra Leone (148.5 kg), Guinea-Bissau (136.9 kg), Ivory Coast (121.1 kg), Liberia (116.5 kg) and Senegal (115.3 kg) all consume large amounts of rice. All of these countries make it into the global top 20.
Another part of Africa where rice consumption is very high, is the islands east of the mainland. Mauritius (54.3 kg), the Comoros (117.7 kg) and Madagascar (148.8 kg) all consume a large amount of rice every year.
Curious about the rice consumption in other continents? Have a look at these other maps of Asia, South America and Europe that I’ve made before.
The data for this map comes from the FAO. The data includes any product made of rice, including rice noodles, sake, rice starch, rice flour and other products made of rice. The amount of rice in the dataset concerns the raw (uncooked) weight.
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