Distillers Country guides / Bolivia
Bolivia
A one-page guide to Bolivia for the spirits trade: the country, its people, its economy and how it drinks.
At a glance
- Capital
- Sucre (constitutional capital); La Paz is the seat of government
- Official languages
- Spanish, 36 indigenous languages incl. Guarani, Aymara, Quechua
- Currency
- Boliviano (BOB)
- Time zone
- UTC-4
- Area
- 1,098,580 km²
People
- Population
- 12.6 million (2025)
- Population growth
- 1.3% a year
- Living in towns and cities
- 71.6%
- Aged under 15
- 29.4%
- Aged 65 and over
- 5.7%
- Life expectancy
- 68.7 years
Economy
- GDP
- US$64.8 billion (2025)
- GDP per person
- US$5,148 (2025)
- Economic growth
- -1.58% (2025)
- Inflation
- 19.52% (2025)
Climate
Varies sharply: humid tropical lowlands averaging about 25 C; altiplano desert/polar conditions averaging 15-20 C with frost every month; temperate, very humid valleys and Yungas; subtropical semi-arid Chaco.
Alcohol
- Alcohol is
- Legal
- Legal drinking age
- Purchase age 18 (Law 259, 2012, Art. 20)
- Alcohol per adult a year
- 3.82 litres of pure alcohol (2024)
- Traditional drinks
- Singani (Muscat of Alexandria grape spirit, protected denomination of origin)
Sources: World Bank (population, economy and demographics), WHO Global Health Observatory (alcohol per adult and drinking mix); World Bank API (population, area, GDP, growth, inflation); WHO GHO OData (SA_0000001688); UN Comtrade public preview API (HS 2208); Wikipedia: Bolivia; Wikipedia: Legal drinking age; Wikipedia: Singani. Figures are the latest each source publishes; the year is shown beside each one.