Serbians second only to Austrians in pork consumption - Chart of world's top carnivores published

An average citizen of Serbia eats more than 82 kg of meat per year, 65 kg of which is pork, the British magazine The Economist reports.

Austrians are the keenest pig-eaters, wolfing down 66kg every year, while Luxembourgers, who top this chart, are second only to Argentinians in beef consumption.

At the other end of the scale, cow-revering Indians eat only 3.2kg of meat each, the least of the 177 countries assessed.

Fifty years ago global consumption was 70m tonnes. By 2007—the latest year for which comparable data are available—it had risen to 268m tonnes. In a similar vein, the amount of meat eaten by each person has leapt from around 22kg in 1961 to 40kg in 2007.

Tastes have changed at the same time. Cow (beef and veal) was top of the menu in the early 1960s, accounting for 40% of meat consumption, but by 2007 its share had fallen to 23%. Pig is now the animal of choice, with around 99m tonnes consumed. Meanwhile advances in battery farming and health-related changes in Western diets have helped propel poultry from 12% to 31% of the global total.

Although populous middle-income countries such as China are driving the worldwide demand for meat, it is mainly Western countries who still eat most per person, The Economist writes.