Distillers Namibia
A one-page guide to Namibia for the spirits trade: the country, its people, its economy and how it drinks.
At a glance
- Capital
- Windhoek
- Official languages
- English
- Currency
- Namibian dollar (NAD); the South African rand is also listed
- Time zone
- UTC+2 (CAT)
- Area
- 824,290 km²
People
- Population
- 3.1 million (2025)
- Population growth
- 2.0% a year
- Living in towns and cities
- 50.9%
- Aged under 15
- 36.7%
- Aged 65 and over
- 3.8%
- Life expectancy
- 67.5 years
Economy
- GDP
- US$15.1 billion (2025)
- GDP per person
- US$4,876 (2025)
- Economic growth
- 1.7% (2025)
- Inflation
- 3.5% (2025)
Climate
Arid: the driest country in sub-Saharan Africa, with over 300 days of sunshine a year; winter (June-August) is dry, rain falls in summer and ranges from almost none on the coast to over 600 mm in the Caprivi Strip.
Alcohol
- Alcohol is
- Legal
- Legal drinking age
- 18 (selling, serving or supplying alcohol to under-18s is prohibited)
- Alcohol per adult a year
- 5.9 litres of pure alcohol (2019)
- What people drink
- Beer 28.4%, wine 41.7%, spirits 11.9%, other 18.0% (2019)
Sources: World Bank (population, economy and demographics), WHO Global Health Observatory (alcohol per adult and drinking mix); Namibia (Wikipedia); Legal drinking age; World Bank country data; WHO Global status report on alcohol and health 2024 (via Wikipedia table); UN Comtrade public API, HS 2208; NamRA: customs procedure travellers guide; The Brief Namibia: excise duty increase (Feb 2026); WHO GISAH country profile - Namibia (2018). Figures are the latest each source publishes; the year is shown beside each one.