Distillers Country guides / Eswatini
Eswatini
A one-page guide to Eswatini for the spirits trade: the country, its people, its economy and how it drinks.
At a glance
- Capital
- Mbabane (executive); Lobamba (legislative)
- Official languages
- Swazi (siSwati), English
- Currency
- Lilangeni (SZL), pegged to the South African rand
- Time zone
- UTC+2
- Area
- 17,364 km²
People
- Population
- 1.3 million (2025)
- Population growth
- 1.1% a year
- Living in towns and cities
- 26.7%
- Aged under 15
- 33.0%
- Aged 65 and over
- 4.3%
- Life expectancy
- 64.3 years
Economy
- GDP
- US$5.2 billion (2025)
- GDP per person
- US$4,108 (2025)
- Economic growth
- 4.19% (2025)
- Inflation
- 2.6% (2019)
Climate
Mbabane averages about 13 C in winter (June-August) and about 20 C in summer; Lowveld summers can reach about 40 C. Rain falls mostly December to March, often as thunderstorms; winters are dry.
Alcohol
- Alcohol is
- Legal
- Legal drinking age
- 18 (Liquor Licenses Act 1964, s.27, per Wikipedia table)
- Alcohol per adult a year
- 6.79 litres of pure alcohol (2020)
- What people drink
- Beer 79%, wine 2%, spirits 19% (2022)
Sources: World Bank (population, economy and demographics), WHO Global Health Observatory (alcohol per adult and drinking mix); Wikipedia: Eswatini; World Bank Open Data API (population, area, GDP, growth, inflation); Our World in Data / WHO GHO alcohol per capita; Wikipedia: Legal drinking age; Eswatini Beverages Ltd (Wikipedia); SABMiller brands (Wikipedia). Figures are the latest each source publishes; the year is shown beside each one.