South Asia and Southeast Asia lead worldwide in taxing sugary drinks, study finds

Researchers have found that sugar-sweetened beverage tax legislation has risen globally, with South Asia leading in adoption. The team links prevalence of type 2 diabetes and obesity in a country to tax adoption policies rather than sugary beverage consumption rates. 

Additionally, 64 countries have passed sugar-sweetened beverage taxes for health purposes between 1990 and 2024, which involves 3.5 billion people, according to the paper by the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University, US.

Global authorities like the WHO and the American Heart Association continue to advocate that governments tax sugar-sweetened beverages.

Global tax prevalence

In South Asia, 50% of the countries have adopted sugar-sweetened beverage taxes, according to the first study to track these levies across 183 countries. Southwest and East Asia follow at 48%. Central Eastern Europe and Central Asia had the lowest adoption rates at 17%.

Meanwhile, 29% of high-income countries have adopted such taxes. The 34-year observational study also finds that most countries apply tax based on product price or volume, with only some linking it to sugar content.

“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,” says the study’s first author, Lizbeth Moreno Loaeza. She led the work while a postdoctoral scholar at Tufts University’s Friedman School and is now at the Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán in Mexico. 

Between 1990 and 2024, 64 countries passed sugar drink taxes for health purposes, involving 3.5 billion people.“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.” 

Tax rates and data sets

The Lancet Global Health study details that the tax rates range from 1–34% by country and 5–17% across world regions. The Middle East and North Africa had the highest median rates.

Since only a few countries tax based on sugar content, the researchers emphasize this benchmark to be the most effective in compelling beverage companies to reduce sugar in their products.

Moreover, the study reveals that only 13% of countries allocate revenue to health programs, flagging a “missed opportunity” for doubling public benefits. 

“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,” says study senior author Dariush Mozaffarian, cardiologist and director of the Food is Medicine Institute. 

“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 US, have not passed national taxes.”

He adds: “These findings highlight opportunities to continue to advance nutrition and well-being through sensible policies, like soda taxes, around the world.”

In 2025, a Tufts University and Global Dietary Database study estimated that sugar-sweetened beverages contribute to 2.2 million new diabetes cases and 1.2 million new cardiovascular disease cases annually worldwide. It underscored the need for urgent public health policies for reducing the consumption of these drinks.

The new study analyzed datasets from the Global Dietary Database, Global Burden of Disease Study, Non-Communicable Disease Risk Factor Collaboration, and the World Bank. To learn the motives behind taxing sugar-sweetened beverages, the team identified characteristics based on World Bank, WHO, and the University of North Carolina (US) data.

Sugary drinks in headlines

This year, the WHO urged tax reforms as alcohol and sugary drinks have become too affordable. Nutrition Insight spoke with the organization about the main barriers preventing countries from implementing better taxes.

Sugar-sweetened beverages might also spike anxiety in adolescents, previous research warned. Another study linked sugary soft drinks to rising oral cancer rates in women.

In response, the food ingredients industry has been increasingly innovating around sugar-reduction solutions. Ingredion recently shared its efforts to support reformulations based on growing clean label demands.