Image at right: Norway began to tax sugar content a hundred years ago. Here, shoppers stock up on sweets in neighbouring Sweden..
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Background information
The information below was predominantly abbreviated from a Wikipedia entry titled 'Sugary drink tax'. The full text can be accessed at
Sugary drink tax
A sugar tax, sugary drink tax, soda tax, soft drink tax, or sweetened beverage tax (SBT) is a tax or surcharge designed to reduce sugar intake by reducing the consumption of sweetened beverages.
Drinks covered under a soda tax often include carbonated soft drinks, sports drinks, and energy drinks. Sugar in such sweetened beverages can be in the form of sucrose, high-fructose corn syrup, or other caloric sweeteners.
This policy intervention is an effort to decrease obesity and the health impacts related to being overweight. The tax is a matter of public debate in many countries and beverage producers like Coca-Cola often oppose it. Advocates such as national medical associations and the World Health Organization promote the tax as an example of Pigovian taxation, aimed to discourage unhealthy diets and offset the growing economic costs of obesity.
Increased taxes on sweetened products have been suggested to promote companies to re-formulate their product to keep consumer costs affordable by decreasing use of the taxed ingredient (i.e., sugar) in their product. Government revenues from these taxes are sometimes put towards improving public health services, however this is not always the case.
Obesity is a global public and health policy concern with the percentage of overweight and obese in many developed and middle-income countries rising rapidly. Consumption of added sugar in sugar sweetened beverages has been positively correlated with high calorie intake, and through it, with excess weight and obesity. The ubiquity of sugar sweetened beverages and their appeal to younger consumers has made their consumption a subject of particular concern by public health professionals. In both the United States and the United Kingdom, sugar sweetened drinks are the top calorie source in teenage diets.
Trends indicate that traditional soda or soft drink consumption is declining in many developed economies but growing rapidly in middle income economies such as Vietnam and India. The focus on carbonated soft drinks such as traditional colas as a subject for taxation implied by the term 'soda tax' can be misleading; sugar sweetened beverages such as sports drinks or electrolyte drinks, sweetened tea, and fruit-flavoured drinks often contain amounts of added sugar equal to carbonated sodas. Often, taxation measures on sugar sweetened beverages include these drink categories for the same form of 'sugar tax'.
As of May 2022, more than 85 countries (at national or subnational levels) have levied taxes that apply to SSBs, according to the WHO Global database on the Implementation of Nutrition Action.
Some countries imposing a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages
Brunei (since 2017), Canada (in the provinces of British Columbia (since 2020) and Newfoundland and Labrador (since 2022), Chile (since 2014), Finland (since 1940), France (since 2012), Hungary (since 2011), India (since 2017), Ireland (since 2018), Italy (since 2019), Malaysia (since 2019), Mexico (since 2013), Netherlands (since 2021), Norway (since 1922), Oman (since 2019), Peru (since 2018), Philippines (since 2017), Poland (since 2021), Portugal (since 2017), Qatar (since 2019), Saudi Arabia (since 2017), Singapore (since 2020), South Africa (since 2018), Thailand (since 2017), United Arab Emirates (since 2017), United Kingdom (since 2018) and
the United States, in the cities of
Albany, California (since 2017)
Berkeley, California (since 2014)
Oakland, California (since 2017)
San Francisco, California (since 2018)
Boulder, Colorado (since 2016)
Cook County, Illinois (since 2016)
Navajo Nation (since 2018)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (since 2017)
and Seattle, Washington (since 2017)