WHO has published several reports in the past on this topic with the last one being published in 2011; this report of 2014 has some unique features. First, it describes some progress made in alcohol policy development in WHO member States after endorsement of the Global strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol in 2010. Second, this report provides a wealth of information on alcohol-related indicators for the comprehensive global monitoring framework for the prevention and control of NCDs adopted by the 66th World Health Assembly. The global monitoring framework was developed fulfilling the mandate given by the Political Declaration of the High-level Meeting of the General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs) and includes the voluntary target of a 10% relative reduction in harmful use of alcohol by 2025 against 2010 baseline. And thirdly, this report presents an overview of some mechanisms and pathways which are behind the impact of harmful use of alcohol on public health.This report provides a global overview on alcohol consumption in relation to public health (Chapter 1) as well as information on: the consumption of alcohol in populations (Chapter 2); the health consequences of alcohol consumption (Chapter 3); and policy responses at national level (Chapter 4).The report also contains country profiles for all 193 WHO Member States as well as data tables to support information provided in chapters 2-4 (Appendices I-III) and a section explaining data sources and methods used in this report (Appendix IV).