Residents of the European continent consume more alcohol than residents of any other part of the world, research shows.
Every year in Europe, people over the age of 15 consume an average of 9.5 liters of pure alcohol, which means that this is equivalent to consuming around 190 liters of beer, 80 liters of wine or 24 liters of spirits. These are data from the European Health Report 2021, published by the World Health Organization.
Total alcohol consumption per capita fell by 2.5 liters (21 percent) between 2000 and 2019 in the WHO European Region, which covers a large geographic area of 53 countries, including Russia and former Soviet states such as Moldova, it said. Euronews.rs.
Out of a total of 10 countries whose inhabitants drink the most in the world (this is adjusted for tourist consumption), nine are part of the European Union, writes Euronews.
In 2019, 8.4 percent of the adult population of the European Union (15 years or older) consumed alcohol every day, 28.8 percent of them drank on a weekly basis, 22.8 percent of them drank on a monthly basis, while 26.2 percent of them said that they have never consumed alcoholic beverages or have not drunk alcohol in the past 12 months.
There are huge differences in estimated alcohol consumption between European Union countries, but one trend remains predominant: men drink more than women: 13 percent of men compared to 4.1 percent of women drink alcohol every day; 36.4 percent of men compared to 21.7 percent of women drink every Sunday.
The biggest gender differences in alcohol consumption are in Portugal (33.4 percent of men drink daily compared to 9.7 percent of women) and Spain (20.2 percent compared to 6.1 percent).
Which of the Europeans drinks the most?
In 2019, the top 10 European countries with the highest alcohol consumption per capita were the Czech Republic (14.3 liters), Latvia (13.2), Moldova (12.9), Germany (12.8), Lithuania (12 ,8), Ireland (12.7), Bulgaria (12.5), Luxembourg (12.4) and Romania (12.3).
The top 10 countries that consume the least amount of alcohol in the WHO European Region are Tajikistan (0.9 liters), Azerbaijan (1.0), Turkey (1.8), Uzbekistan (2.6), Turkmenistan (3.1), Israel ( 4.4), Armenia (4.7), Kazakhstan (5.0), Albania (6.8), and North Macedonia (6.4).
It is important to note that most of the countries on this list, with the exception of North Macedonia, Armenia and Israel, have a majority population of the Muslim faith, for whom alcohol consumption is prohibited or condemned.
However, in the European Union, no country has an annual per capita alcohol consumption below five liters of pure alcohol, in fact only five countries have an annual per capita consumption below 10 litres: Italy (8.0), Malta (8.3 ), Croatia (8.7), Sweden (9.0) and the Netherlands (9.7).
Europeans drink a lot, but how often?
Data show that as people age, their daily alcohol intake increases.
People aged between 15 and 24 are the group with the lowest percentage of daily intake (representing only 1 per cent), while those aged 75 and over are more likely to have a drink every day (16 per cent).
However, the senior group has the largest number of people who do not consume alcohol at all or have not consumed it in the last 12 months (40.3 percent).
In the European Union, alcohol consumption every day is most common in Portugal, with a fifth (20.7 percent) of the population drinking on a daily basis, followed by Spain (13.9 percent) and Italy (12.1 percent). Latvia and Lithuania have the lowest number of people who drink on a daily basis, about one percent.
The European Union country with the highest percentage of the population that drinks on a weekly basis is the Netherlands (47.3 percent), followed by Luxembourg (43.1 percent) and Belgium (40.8 percent).
Croatia has the highest percentage of the population (38.3) who claim that they have never consumed alcohol or that they have not consumed alcohol in the past 12 months.
Across all European countries, there are clearly more women than men who abstain from alcohol.
The number of women who do not drink is highest in Italy, where 46.7 percent of them claim that they have never consumed alcohol or that they have not drunk in the past 12 months (compared to 21.5 percent of men). In Cyprus, this estimate stands at 44.2 percent of women compared to 12.8 percent of men, while in Bulgaria there are 42.0 percent of women compared to 16.2 percent of men.
What is the situation with episodes of heavy drinking?
Some countries in the European Union have more episodes of heavy drinking than others. Heavy drinking is defined as consuming more than 60g of pure ethanol (approximately six standard alcoholic drinks) on one occasion.
Almost one in five Europeans (19 percent) reported episodes of heavy drinking at least once a month in 2019.
The highest percentage of adults who participate in episodes of heavy drinking at least once a month are found in Denmark (38 percent), Romania (35 percent), Luxembourg (34 percent), Germany (30 percent) and Belgium (28 percent).
Interestingly, some countries with a significant percentage of the population who consume alcohol every day, such as Spain and Italy, rank low on the heavy drinking scale, at 6 percent and 4 percent, respectively.
Eurostat shows that persistent risky drinking on one occasion is disproportionately prevalent among men. Also, the percentage is higher among those with higher education, a university degree and the highest incomes.
How much do people drink in the UK?
Since the United Kingdom left the European Union in 2020, the population of this island is no longer included in Eurostat data. How do their habits compare with those in the European Union?
According to Drinkawar (an independent charity which provides annual reports on alcohol consumption) in the UK, 57 per cent of men and 47 per cent of women drank alcohol at least weekly in 2020.
The average of 52 percent is 23 percent higher than the general average of Europeans (28.8 percent) who claimed to drink once a week in 2019.
Fourteen percent claimed that they never drink (compared to 26.2 percent in the European Union).
How much drink is safe?
There is no safe level of alcohol, according to the WHO. The only way to avoid the harmful effects of alcohol is not to drink. However, governments have published guidelines for low-risk consumption.
Canadians, for example, were recently told by authorities to limit alcohol to just two drinks a week. This is a dramatic change from the previous recommendation that women are allowed 10 drinks a week and men 15.
Europe is more tolerant than Canada and the guides are similar from country to country.
In Belgium, for example, the limit is 21 standard glasses per week for a man and 14 for a woman, whether this is half a liter of beer or a small glass of wine.
Ireland recommends a maximum of 17 drinks per week for men and 11 for women.
Bulgaria and the Netherlands recommend that the daily limit be either one glass of wine, one beer or 50 ml of spirits. In Germany, the maximum daily dose for men is 24g of alcohol, which is equal to 500 ml of beer (one pint), 250 ml of wine (a large glass of wine), or 60 ml of alcoholic beverage. Half of this is recommended for women.
Estonia recommends three alcoholic drinks a week and it is also recommended not to skimp on the daily intake of alcohol only to overdo it later.
Luxembourg and Cyprus advise that wine and beer be preferred over spirits. In Norway, alcohol should not exceed 5 percent of the total caloric intake.
The National Health Service in the United Kingdom recommends no more than 14 alcoholic drinks per week, spread over three days or more. That’s six medium (175-ml) glasses of wine, or six pints of beer that contain 4 percent alcohol.
Since women have less water in their bodies than men of similar body weight, they absorb and metabolize alcohol differently. This means that, in general, women have a higher concentration of alcohol in their blood than men even though they drink the same amount of alcohol.
Deadly consequences of alcohol
The World Health Organization links alcohol to 30 percent of deaths resulting from unintentional injuries, such as drowning or traffic accidents, and to 39 percent of intentional injuries, such as suicide and murder.
Alcohol consumption is also associated with negative psychological and social consequences, which include leading young people to use other substances and unprotected sex, which ultimately play a role in the transmission of diseases such as HIV and viral hepatitis.
The World Health Organization estimates that alcohol causes almost a million deaths annually in the WHO European Region, and 3 million deaths worldwide.
