Distillers Country guides / Zambia
Zambia
A one-page guide to Zambia for the spirits trade: the country, its people, its economy and how it drinks.
At a glance
- Area
- 752,612 km²
People
- Population
- 21.9 million (2025)
- Population growth
- 2.8% a year
- Living in towns and cities
- 45.9%
- Aged under 15
- 41.0%
- Aged 65 and over
- 2.0%
- Life expectancy
- 66.5 years
Economy
- GDP
- US$28.9 billion (2025)
- GDP per person
- US$1,318 (2025)
- Economic growth
- 3.76% (2025)
- Inflation
- 13.91% (2025)
Alcohol
- Alcohol per adult a year
- 3.85 litres of pure alcohol (2019)
- Traditional drinks
- Chibuku and Shake-Shake (commercial maize beers), Traditional maize beer, Thobwa, Munkoyo
Sources: World Bank (population, economy and demographics), WHO Global Health Observatory (alcohol per adult and drinking mix); Zambian Breweries (Wikipedia); Alcohol in Zambia (Wikipedia); World Bank API; Our World in Data / WHO GISAH alcohol per capita; UN Comtrade API; Lusaka Times - Government warns illicit alcohol manufacturers (Sep 2017). Figures are the latest each source publishes; the year is shown beside each one.