Distillers Botswana
A one-page guide to Botswana for the spirits trade: the country, its people, its economy and how it drinks.
At a glance
- Capital
- Gaborone
- Official languages
- English (official), Setswana (national language)
- Currency
- Pula (BWP)
- Time zone
- UTC+2 (Central Africa Time)
- Area
- 581,730 km²
People
- Population
- 2.6 million (2025)
- Population growth
- 1.6% a year
- Living in towns and cities
- 68.0%
- Aged under 15
- 32.0%
- Aged 65 and over
- 4.1%
- Life expectancy
- 69.3 years
Economy
- GDP
- US$19.9 billion (2025)
- GDP per person
- US$7,778 (2025)
- Economic growth
- -0.733898323852287% (2025)
- Inflation
- 2.65985038423427% (2025)
Climate
Generally semi-arid with strongly seasonal rainfall; the north and east are wetter than the dry southwest. Summers can be extremely hot and winter nights quite cold.
Alcohol
- Alcohol is
- Legal
- Legal drinking age
- 18 (licence holders may not sell or supply to under-18s)
- Alcohol per adult a year
- 4.3 litres of pure alcohol (2022)
- What people drink
- Beer 63%, wine 9%, spirits 28% (2022)
Sources: World Bank (population, economy and demographics), WHO Global Health Observatory (alcohol per adult and drinking mix); Wikipedia: Botswana (basics, climate, ports); Wikipedia: Legal drinking age; World Bank Open Data (population, GDP, growth, inflation, area); WHO Global Health Observatory: total alcohol per capita; UN Comtrade (HS 2208 trade); YourBotswana: alcohol levy cut; Wikipedia: Kgalagadi Breweries Limited; Sagaci Research: Spirits market in Botswana. Figures are the latest each source publishes; the year is shown beside each one.