Which country ranks first in cereal consumption per capita?

Ireland ranks first in per-capita breakfast-cereal consumption. The ranking refers to packaged breakfast cereals such as cornflakes, bran flakes, and muesli, rather than every grain eaten as food worldwide.

Ireland’s strong cereal habit developed alongside the growth of convenient, ready-to-eat breakfast foods during the twentieth century. Cereal became a familiar everyday meal in Irish households, and the country’s relatively small population makes its per-person consumption especially striking. Guinness World Records recorded Ireland’s 2011 average at 8.1 kilograms per person.

That figure was far above the reported global average of 0.6 kilograms and the United States average of 4.4 kilograms for the same comparison. Ireland’s cereal market has also included both traditional products and newer options such as muesli, granola, and high-fibre cereals.

A common mix-up is treating this as a ranking of wheat, rice, oats, or total cereal grains. Those measurements use different agricultural and nutrition datasets and can produce different leaders. Trivia references generally mean breakfast cereal, for which Ireland is the accepted answer.