In 2013, residents of Whitehorse, and those traveling through, drank enough beer, wine, and spirits to fill the main pool at the Canada Games Centre two and a half times.
That’s more than two million litres of booze, and it will likely be even more next year.
According to Statistics Canada, the 2012-13 sales of beer, wine, and spirits amount to $1,332 for every Yukoner.
In 2009, it was $1,219, then it jumped to $1,270 the next year, and $1,298 the year after that.
In each year, Yukon has led the nation by a wide margin and has ever since the stat started to be kept back in 1950.
This year, Newfoundland and Labrador had the second highest sales in the country at $981.40 per capita. The nation’s most sober residents resided in New Brunswick, where locals spent an average of $631. The average across the country was $733.70.
Gary Brown of the Yukon Bureau of Statistics notes that the Yukon numbers are inflated by the amount of tourists the territory receives each year, which, at 350,000, is among the highest number per-capita in the country.
In total, the Yukon spent slightly more than $40 million dollars on alcohol. Half the sales came in beer and cider, 30 per cent on spirits and the remainder of wine.
Whitehorse saw $26.5 million in alcohol sales. Dawson City trailed the capital, spending nearly $3.5 million. Watson Lake was third at just less than $2 million.
The upward trend does not bode well for the territory, as drug and alcohol abuse continues to be a serious problem.
The Yukon has a high-risk population of heavy drinkers who consume alcohol and drugs at much higher rates than similar high-risk users in the rest of Canada, according to Health and Social Services.
Yukon’s crime statistics indicate that in 2003, 55 per cent of all assaults, including sexual, had alcohol involved.