First: What Is This Map Actually Measuring?

The map uses FAOSTAT Food Balance data as a proxy for national consumption.

FAO’s Food Balance Sheets start with a country’s food supply:

Domestic production + imports + stock changes

and then subtract uses such as:

exports, animal feed, seed, processing, non-food uses and losses.

The remainder is the amount considered available for human consumption. Dividing that by population produces a per-capita food-supply figure. (FAOHome)

So if Spain shows substantially more olive oil than butter per person, it is reasonable to describe Spain as olive-oil dominant.

But it does not mean FAO interviewed every Spanish household and asked what was poured into the frying pan.

The distinction matters.

A better phrase throughout the article is:

“food supply” or “availability”

rather than exact personal intake.

FAO itself stresses that food-balance figures may exceed the amount actually eaten because food can still be wasted after reaching households. (FAOHome)

The Mediterranean Is Olive Oil’s Heartland

The strongest olive-oil zone on the map stretches through:

Portugal
Spain
Italy
Greece
Malta
Cyprus

with several nearby countries showing substantial olive-oil use as well.

This pattern is not accidental.

These countries sit inside or close to the Mediterranean climatic zone where olive trees thrive.

Olives prefer:

hot, dry summers,

mild winters,

plenty of sunlight,

and landscapes where many other crops can struggle.

For thousands of years, Mediterranean farmers transformed that environmental advantage into one of the region’s defining foods.

Olive Oil Is More Than a Cooking Fat

In Mediterranean societies, olive oil historically served many purposes.

It was used for:

cooking,

preserving food,

lighting lamps,

religious rituals,

medicine,

soap

and cosmetics.

Ancient Greek and Roman economies traded enormous quantities of olive oil around the Mediterranean.

Archaeologists still find amphorae—the ceramic containers once used for shipping oil and wine—throughout former Roman territories.

The olive tree therefore became more than an agricultural crop.

It became part of Mediterranean civilization.

Spain: The Giant of the Olive-Oil World

Spain appears strongly olive-oil dominant, and there is good reason.

Spain is the world’s largest producer of olive oil in many years, with enormous olive-growing landscapes particularly in Andalusia.

The province of Jaén alone contains vast areas of olive groves.

Drive through southern Spain and entire hillsides can appear covered with evenly spaced olive trees stretching to the horizon.

This enormous domestic production has helped make olive oil inexpensive, familiar and deeply integrated into everyday cooking.

Spanish dishes use it for:

frying,

salad dressings,

sauces,

vegetable dishes,

seafood

and even baking.

For many Spanish households, olive oil is not a specialty product.

It is simply the default cooking fat.

Italy: Olive Oil as a Cultural Identity

Italy shows an equally strong olive-oil pattern.

But Italian food culture varies enormously by region.

Southern and central Italy historically relied heavily on olive oil.

Northern Italy, especially areas associated with cattle dairying, has traditionally used more butter.

That is an important reminder that a national map inevitably hides regional variation.

A kitchen in Sicily and a kitchen in Lombardy may have very different histories even though both sit inside the same country.

Still, at the national level olive oil has become one of the defining symbols of Italian cuisine.

It appears in everything from:

pasta sauces

and bruschetta

to vegetables,

fish,

soups

and salads.

Greece: Olive Oil at the Center of the Diet

If any country demonstrates how thoroughly olive oil can become integrated into a cuisine, Greece is a strong candidate.

Olive cultivation has existed in the region for thousands of years.

Ancient Greek mythology even linked the olive tree with the goddess Athena.

Modern Greek cooking uses olive oil extensively in:

vegetable dishes,

beans,

salads,

fish,

meat,

pastries

and preserved foods.

Many traditional Greek dishes contain much more olive oil than someone unfamiliar with Mediterranean cooking might expect.

The importance of olive oil in Greece is therefore simultaneously:

agricultural,

historical,

cultural

and culinary.

Portugal: Atlantic Country, Mediterranean Food Pattern

Portugal faces the Atlantic rather than the Mediterranean Sea, yet its climate and agriculture place much of the country firmly within the broader Mediterranean food world.

Olive oil is central to Portuguese cooking.

It appears with:

cod,

soups,

potatoes,

vegetables,

bread

and numerous regional dishes.

This demonstrates that the “Mediterranean diet” is not limited to countries physically touching the Mediterranean.

Climate and agricultural history matter more than the name of the sea beside the coastline.

France Is Where the Two Worlds Begin to Meet

France is especially interesting because the map shows it as mixed rather than clearly belonging to one camp.

That makes sense culturally.

Southern France has strong Mediterranean influences and a long tradition of olive oil.

Provence, for example, is closely associated with:

olives,

garlic,

tomatoes,

herbs

and olive-oil-based cooking.

Move north, however, and butter becomes far more prominent.

Normandy and Brittany are famous for dairy farming.

French pastry traditions rely heavily on butter.

Croissants.

Puff pastry.

Brioche.

Many classical sauces.

France therefore sits almost perfectly between Europe’s two great fat traditions.

French Cuisine Shows Why National Averages Can Mislead

Imagine comparing two meals.

One prepared in Provence might use olive oil throughout.

Another prepared in Brittany might involve salted butter, cream and dairy.

Both are authentically French.

So coloring France a single shade is necessarily a simplification.

This is true for many large countries.

Food culture often follows climate and historic farming regions more closely than modern political borders.

Why Butter Dominates Northern Europe

Move north from the Mediterranean and the climate changes dramatically.

Olive trees become difficult or impossible to grow commercially across most of:

Britain,

Ireland,

Germany,

Poland,

Scandinavia

and northern/eastern Europe.

Historically, those regions needed another source of dietary fat.

They had one readily available:

dairy cattle.

Cooler, wetter climates support grasslands extremely well.

Grass feeds cattle.

Cattle produce milk.

Milk can be transformed into:

butter,

cheese,

cream

and other durable foods.

This created a completely different culinary geography.

Butter Was Also a Preservation Technology

Fresh milk spoils quickly.

Before refrigeration, that was a major problem.

Turning milk into butter offered several advantages.

It concentrated much of the milk’s fat.

It lasted longer.

It was easier to transport.

And it provided a calorie-dense food that could be stored and traded.

Cheese solved a similar problem for milk proteins and fats.

Northern Europe’s dairy tradition therefore was not initially about culinary luxury.

It was a practical adaptation to agriculture and food preservation.

Ireland: An Almost Perfect Environment for Dairy

Ireland’s climate provides an excellent example.

Frequent rain and mild temperatures keep grass growing for much of the year.

That makes cattle farming highly productive.

The result is an extraordinarily strong dairy culture.

Irish butter has become internationally famous, but its prominence comes from something very geographical:

grass.

The green landscape that Ireland is famous for is not merely scenic.

It feeds livestock.

And livestock historically determined what kinds of fat appeared in Irish kitchens.

Britain: Butter, Dairy and the Northern Food Tradition

Britain also falls clearly within Europe’s butter zone.

British cooking historically used:

butter,

beef fat,

lard

and other animal fats.

Olive oil was available through trade, particularly among wealthier households, but it was not locally produced on anything resembling Mediterranean scales.

For generations, olive oil was even associated in Britain more with pharmacies and specialist uses than with everyday frying.

That has changed dramatically.

Modern British supermarkets sell enormous quantities of olive oil.

Mediterranean food has become mainstream.

Immigration and international travel transformed eating habits.

Yet the older butter tradition remains visible in the national food supply.

Scandinavia: Butter in a Cold Climate

Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Iceland also fall primarily into the butter side of the map.

Again, ecology explains much of the historical pattern.

Olive trees cannot flourish across Scandinavia.

Dairy cattle can.

Butter became important in:

baking,

bread,

porridge,

potatoes,

fish dishes

and everyday cooking.

In societies with long, cold winters, dairy fats were also valuable sources of concentrated calories.

Modern diets are much more diverse, but those centuries of food history still leave a measurable imprint.

Germany and Central Europe: Butter Country

Germany, Austria, Czechia and much of central Europe sit firmly inside the traditional butter belt on the infographic.

These regions developed strong traditions of:

dairy farming,

bread,

cakes,

pastries,

potatoes,

meat

and butter-based cooking.

Butter became especially important in baking.

Think of the difference between a northern European pastry tradition and the olive-oil-heavy savory dishes of Greece.

These food systems were built around different available fats.

The resulting cuisines still look different centuries later.

Eastern Europe: The Map Needs an Important Qualification

The infographic compares only:

olive oil

against

butter/ghee.

That creates a limitation.

Those are not the only important fats in European diets.

Across central and eastern Europe, other oils—especially sunflower and rapeseed oil—can be extremely important.

The infographic itself correctly notes that these are excluded.

That means a country colored “butter dominant” does not necessarily mean butter is the country’s most commonly consumed cooking fat overall.

It only means:

Butter/ghee is more available than olive oil in the specific two-product comparison.

This distinction should be very clear in the website article.

A household might use far more sunflower oil than either one.

Sunflower Oil Changes the Eastern European Picture

Sunflower oil is especially significant in countries around the Black Sea and eastern Europe.

Ukraine and Russia have historically been among the world’s major sunflower-producing countries.

Sunflower oil is consequently deeply integrated into many regional food traditions.

So a true map asking:

“What cooking fat is most common in Europe?”

would need categories including at least:

olive oil,

butter,

sunflower oil,

rapeseed oil,

other vegetable oils

and potentially animal fats.

The current map asks a narrower—but still interesting—question:

Olive oil or butter: which one is more prominent in the national food supply?

What About Türkiye?

Türkiye sits at a fascinating culinary crossroads.

Western and Aegean Türkiye have enormous olive-growing traditions.

Olive oil is central to many dishes, particularly along the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts.

But the country is large.

Central and eastern regions have different agricultural and culinary histories, including substantial dairy and animal-fat traditions.

That makes Türkiye much harder to classify with one national color.

Once again, national averages conceal regional food geographies.

The Alps Form a Culinary Boundary Too

Look around Switzerland, northern Italy, Austria, Slovenia and nearby areas and the map becomes particularly interesting.

The Alps are not merely a physical barrier.

Historically, they helped separate agricultural systems.

South-facing Mediterranean regions could cultivate olives.

High Alpine environments favored grazing animals.

That means elevation alone could influence cooking fats.

Travel over a mountain range and you might historically move from:

olive groves

to

dairy pastures.

Cuisine followed the landscape.

Why Olive Oil Could Travel but Butter Stayed Local

Trade complicates the simple climate explanation.

Ancient Romans transported olive oil over enormous distances.

Today a supermarket in Helsinki can stock olive oils from Spain, Greece and Italy at any time of year.

So why do historic patterns remain?

Because food culture is sticky.

People learn recipes from parents and grandparents.

Restaurants reinforce local cuisine.

Agricultural industries shape prices.

Familiar flavors become comforting.

Traditional foods become part of national identity.

Once a cooking system becomes established, international trade does not instantly erase it.

Instead, new foods are layered on top of older traditions.

Modern Europe Is Becoming More Mixed

The green-versus-yellow divide is much less rigid today than it would have been centuries ago.

Olive oil is now common throughout northern Europe.

Butter remains heavily used in Mediterranean countries too.

Chefs mix culinary traditions.

Consumers travel.

International recipes spread online.

Supermarkets offer ingredients from everywhere.

Health advice has also influenced demand.

Olive oil has become strongly associated with the Mediterranean diet and cardiovascular health, helping its popularity expand far beyond olive-growing regions.

Meanwhile, butter has experienced its own culinary revival in baking and premium food culture.

So the map should not be read as:

“People in yellow countries don’t use olive oil.”

or

“People in green countries don’t eat butter.”

Both products are widely available across Europe.

The map shows which side is stronger in a specific statistical comparison.

Is Olive Oil Healthier Than Butter?

This naturally comes up whenever the two are compared.

Nutritionally they have very different fatty-acid profiles.

Olive oil—especially extra-virgin olive oil—is rich in monounsaturated fat, primarily oleic acid.

Butter contains substantially more saturated fat.

Major dietary guidelines generally recommend replacing some saturated fats with unsaturated fats rather than simply adding more fat overall.

But nutrition depends on the entire diet.

A Mediterranean eating pattern is not beneficial merely because someone pours olive oil onto otherwise highly processed food.

Likewise, butter is not a poison.

Quantity and overall dietary pattern matter.

The map itself should remain cultural and geographical rather than turning into a simplistic “good fat versus bad fat” argument.

An Important Statistical Problem: Butter and Oil Are Not Identical Products

There is another technical issue worth mentioning.

Olive oil is essentially pure fat.

Traditional butter is generally around four-fifths milk fat, with the remainder mostly water and milk solids.

Ghee has had most of its water and milk solids removed and is much closer to pure fat.

Therefore, comparing kilograms of olive oil directly with kilograms of butter/ghee is not a perfect nutritional comparison.

If the objective is:

“Which contributes more dietary fat?”

then comparing FAOSTAT fat supply quantity or energy supply would arguably be more consistent than simply comparing product weight.

If the objective is:

“Which physical product has more food available per person?”

then kilograms can still be useful.

I would therefore describe the infographic specifically as a proxy, as its subtitle already does.

Why the Divide Has Survived for Thousands of Years

The most fascinating part of the map is how much ancient geography remains visible in modern food data.

The Mediterranean grew olives.

Northern Europe grew grass and raised dairy cattle.

Those ecological differences created:

different ingredients,

different preservation techniques,

different recipes

and eventually different cuisines.

Then trade, religion, empires and migration reinforced those patterns.

A modern European can now buy any cooking fat almost anywhere.

Yet thousands of years after farmers first adapted to local landscapes, their choices remain visible in what nations make available and eat today.

Europe Has More Than One Food Civilization

The phrase “European food” can be misleading.

Europe contains several overlapping culinary worlds.

The Mediterranean tradition revolves heavily around:

olive oil,

wine,

wheat,

vegetables,

legumes

and seafood.

Northern and central European traditions historically placed greater emphasis on:

butter,

dairy,

rye,

potatoes,

meat

and animal fats.

Eastern Europe adds strong traditions involving:

sunflower oil,

fermented foods,

grains

and dairy.

The boundaries are fuzzy.

But they are real enough to appear on a map.

The Bigger Story Behind the Map

At first glance:

Spain uses more olive oil.

Britain uses more butter.

Simple.

But ask why, and suddenly the map connects modern kitchens with ancient geography.

Spain had a climate suitable for olive trees.

Ireland had grass suitable for cattle.

Italy contained both systems.

France sat between them.

The Alps acted as both a physical and culinary boundary.

Eastern Europe developed yet another vegetable-oil tradition.

In other words:

Europe’s cooking fats are a map of its landscapes.

The food sitting in a kitchen today still carries the imprint of the environment in which previous generations lived.

Accuracy Note for the Infographic

The FAOSTAT source is appropriate, but I would make the methodology more explicit. The latest Food Balances dataset available in 2026 covers 2010–2023, with the current catalog revision dated October 2025. (FAO Data)

I would change the subtitle to:

“Proxy based on 2023 FAOSTAT per-capita food supply, comparing olive oil with butter/ghee.”

And add:

“Food-balance data measure national food availability, not exact individual consumption. Other fats and oils are excluded.”

FAO specifically warns that per-capita Food Balance Sheet values represent the average amount available for human consumption, while actual household intake may be lower because of waste and other factors. (FAOHome)

I would also avoid claiming that yellow countries are simply “butter countries.” The visualization compares only two categories, while sunflower, rapeseed and other vegetable oils may exceed both in some countries.