Researchers from Tufts University published a study on June 8, 2024, in The Lancet Global Health, analyzing the global adoption and characteristics of sugar-sweetened beverage taxes. The study, conducted by the Food is Medicine Institute, utilized global datasets from 1990 to 2024 to examine 183 countries.
Between 1990 and 2024, 64 countries passed sugar-sweetened beverage taxes for health purposes. These taxes currently cover 3.5 billion people worldwide. The study found that a country's burden of type 2 diabetes and obesity drove the adoption of the taxes.
"Surprisingly, the consumption rates of sugar-sweetened beverages had no significant relationship with whether a country chose to tax them, suggesting these decisions are driven more by disease burdens," Lizbeth Moreno Loaeza, the study's first author, said. "We also found that countries with higher social and health development are less likely to adopt these taxes, regardless of their economic wealth. This may be because they generally possess more robust health systems and experience lower rates of diet-related diseases."
Sugar-sweetened beverage tax rates ranged from 1 percent to 34 percent by country, and from 5 percent to 17 percent across various world regions. The Middle East and North Africa had the highest median tax rates. Most countries base their taxes on either price or volume, with a small fraction linking the tax to sugar content. Only 13 percent of these countries directed the tax revenue toward health programs.
"We know these taxes work, and we now have a much clearer picture of how they are being adopted and what drives countries to do so. Nearly half of the world's population now lives under a national sugar-sweetened beverage tax, but we found that the rates of many of these taxes remain relatively low, and that dozens of other countries, including the United States, have not passed national taxes," Dariush Mozaffarian, senior author and cardiologist, said.
"These findings highlight opportunities to continue to advance nutrition and well-being through sensible policies, like soda taxes, around the world," Mozaffarian said. The World Health Organization and the American Heart Association have recommended that governments tax sugar-sweetened beverages. Tax characteristics were identified using data from the World Bank, the World Health Organization, and the University of North Carolina. Fifty percent of countries in South Asia have adopted the taxes, while nearly 48 percent in Southeast and East Asia have done so. Twenty-nine percent of high-income countries, and 17 percent of countries in Central Eastern Europe and Central Asia, have also adopted these taxes. A 2025 study in Nature Medicine estimated that sugar-sweetened beverages contribute to 2.2 million new diabetes cases and 1.2 million new cardiovascular disease cases globally each year.