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More than half of the world’s countries now tax sugar-sweetened drinks, according to a WHO report
In most cases, the levies are too low to significantly reduce consumption or improve health outcomes
Sugary drinks have become more affordable in many countries since 2022, the report finds
A growing number of countries have introduced taxes on sugary drinks, but most have set them too low to significantly reduce consumption or improve public health, according to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO).
The Global Report on the Use of Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Taxes, 2025 finds that while more than half of the world’s countries now tax sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB), the levies typically make up only a small share of the retail price — about 6.8 per cent on average for a common sugary drink.
As of July 2024, 116 countries had introduced national-level excise taxes on at least one type of SSB. Of these, 114 countries applied such taxes to sugar-sweetened carbonated drinks, the most widely sold category of sugary beverages.
The WHO defines sugar-sweetened beverages as all non-alcoholic drinks containing free sugars. These include carbonated and non-carbonated soft drinks, fruit and vegetable juices and drinks, nectars, liquid and powder concentrates, flavoured waters, vitamin waters, energy and sports drinks, ready-to-drink teas and coffees, flavoured milks and milk-based drinks, as well as plant-based milk substitutes.
The agency identifies these beverages as among the leading sources of free sugar intake in many countries, while offering little or no nutritional benefit. Rising consumption of diets high in sugary drinks — alongside foods high in salt and saturated fats — has been a major driver of obesity and diet-related noncommunicable diseases, including type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, the report noted.
Evidence suggests that excise taxes on SSBs can reduce consumption if they are large enough to significantly raise prices relative to income. “Tax levels need to be high enough to trigger sufficiently high changes in price to alter the underlying product affordability and consumption (relative to income),” the report stated.
However, the WHO report finds that this threshold is rarely met. Although the average tax applied to a 330millilitre internationally comparable brand of sugar-sweetened carbonated drink was 6.8 per cent, the median excise tax share of the retail price globally was just 2.4 per cent.
As a result, sugary drinks remain cheap, widely available and aggressively marketed, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. The report also found that in most countries, sugar-sweetened carbonated beverages have become more affordable since 2022. In 62 countries, affordability increased, compared with only 34 countries where it declined.
“Countries need to increase taxes sufficiently to ensure such products do not become affordable over time,” WHO said.
The assessment, based on WHO data compiled for the second time since the report’s first publication in 2023, used standardised indicators of prices and tax levels for an internationally comparable sugary drink, alongside information on national tax policies for non-alcoholic beverages.
One key finding is that most countries do not tax sugar-sweetened ready-to-drink tea or coffee, or sugar-sweetened milk-based drinks, including plant-based milk substitutes, despite their free sugar content.
At the same time, nearly half of the countries that apply excise taxes to non-alcoholic beverages include unsweetened bottled water among taxable products.
“The consumption of healthy substitutes such as water should be incentivised and not taxed,” the report said.
The WHO also examined how revenue from sugary drink taxes is used. Of the 116 countries that apply excise taxes on non-alcoholic beverages and for which information on earmarking is available, only 10 countries dedicate the revenue specifically to health programmes. In most of these cases, funds are directed towards universal health coverage.