How we fell out of love with alcohol - and it's NOT just a Gen Z phenomenon: Map shows booze intake has plunged in Western Europe but risen 7-fold in one part of the world

Daily Mail​

26-07-2025

Western Europe is falling out of love with booze – and it's not just a Gen Z phenomenon, leading experts say.
Alcohol consumption in Britain has plunged 10 per cent since the millennium, with figures showing rates have dipped among all age groups.
Nowadays the average UK adult sinks 10.11 litres of pure alcohol per year, ranking 25th highest in a world's league table. That equates to around 505 pints of lager or 112 bottles of wine.
In 2000, Brits drank 11.18 litres a year – enough to sit 9th overall in the 2022 global rankings.
Statistics held by the World Health Organization show the trend is mirrored across Western Europe, with alcohol intake having plunged even quicker in Ireland (29 per cent), France (25 per cent) and Germany (16 per cent).
University College London 's Dr Melissa Oldham, who tracks drinking trends in the UK, told MailOnline: 'Declining youth alcohol consumption is something we are seeing across many high income countries.
'Similar reasons seem to underlie this trend, including changing attitudes towards alcohol and increased awareness of alcohol-harms, alongside changes in the way young people socialise.'
Out of the 187 countries surveyed by the WHO, 92 consumed less alcohol in 2022.
Syria saw the biggest fall since 2000 (93 per cent), although it recorded below one litre per person for both years.
Of the countries which drank at least one litre, Venezuela fell 74 per cent from 7.7 to 2.02 litres.
Eighty-eight nations drank more, however, including the US (up 14 per cent, to 9.41 litres per year, or around 470 pints). The US currently ranks 28th overall.
Consumption rates have rocketed nearly 7-fold in Cambodia, 5-fold in Myanmar and 3-fold in Vietnam, the statistics suggest.
Experts say this is down to economic growth, as well as an expanding middle class that can afford to purchase more alcohol. The trend has spooked health chiefs, who want a crackdown in south east Asia.
Seven nations (Afghanistan, Iran, Libya, Mauritania, Somalia, Sudan) saw no change, drinking zero litres in both years.
The Czech Republic was home to the biggest drinkers.
There, adults typically drink 12.99 litres of pure alcohol every year – equivalent to 649.5 pints of 4 per cent lager or 144 bottles of red wine.
Rounding out the top three were Latvia (12.58) and Estonia (12.06).
What adults are drinking has also changed. In Britain, wine consumption has soared 12-fold since the 1960s, partly fuelled by higher boozing rates among women.
Beer intake, meanwhile, has more than halved since its heyday five decades ago – from the equivalent of 276 pints a year to 110.
So, what's going on in Britain?
Brits have a complicated relationship with alcohol, having earned an international reputation for binge drinking, 'lager louts' and the Great British pub.
Historically this culture has been fuelled by students, boozing at sports events and house parties or bar-hopping in town centres both here and abroad.
But studies suggest the tables have now turned, with society's youngest foregoing pints in favour of low and no-alcohol alternatives or even going teetotal.
NHS data shows rates have fallen the quickest among the 16-24 year old age group, in trends that have seen them dubbed 'generation sensible'.
Experts claim that this is due to a variety of factors, including them wanting to keep fitter and avoid the liquid calories, save money and avoid the dangers of excessive boozing.
The NHS says there's no 'safe' drinking level, although anything above 14 units per week is considered dangerous. This itself has been watered down over the past few decades in light of studies illustrating the risks of alcohol.
Decades of alcohol abuse can cause cancer and strokes, as well as heart and liver disease and brain damage.
Dr Oldham said: 'Young people today have better education in schools on this topic.
'They've seen the impact of regular drinking on older generations and possibly even have negative experiences with older adults from their personal lives that can have a visceral impact on how they see alcohol.
'But awareness across Europe as to the dangers of alcohol causing life-threatening or harmful conditions are generally low.'
Yet figures show it's not just Generation Z who are turning their back on booze.
NHS figures collected before the pandemic showed consumption levels were on the decline among 20-somethings and middle-aged adults.
Dr Richard Piper, chief executive of Alcohol Change UK, said: 'People are falling out of friendship with alcohol because they're not making better memories, improved energy, sleep or improved long-term health outcomes - all things they would want from the experience.'
Britain's 'slow-burning crisis'
Alcohol-related deaths reached a record high in 2023 at nearly 10,500. That's up over 20 per cent since the pandemic and nearly doubling since 2001.
Covid-era curbs likely fuelled dangerous drinking habits, scientists think.
Dozens of surveys have also found boredom, having more time to drink and anxiety fuelled worrying trends in alcohol consumption during lockdowns.
Yet Dr Piper said the situation in the UK was akin to a 'slow burning crisis' as alcohol deaths continue to rise in spite of clearly shifting attitudes to consumption.
The main cause in the spike in deaths in the wake of the pandemic, according to a study published in the Lancet Public Health earlier this year, was a steep rise in liver damage caused by alcohol. It can take years of heavy drinking for this to build up.
Yet the total death toll is deemed to be the 'tip of the iceberg' because it only counts deaths wholly attributable to alcohol – not deaths where it likely played a contributory factor.
Campaigners have called for measures such as minimum unit pricing, cigarette-style health warnings on labels and tighter advertising regulations.
Dr Piper said minimum unit pricing – a system where products are priced based on the amount of units they have – would undoubtedly help tackle the crisis, by making cheaper, higher-strength drinks more expensive. Scotland and Wales already adopt the measure, fixed at 65p and 50p per unit, respectively.
In England, there is currently no minimum unit price for alcohol meaning cheap drink is rife. In supermarkets today, a two-litre bottle of cider can be bought for under £3, which equates to 33p per unit of alcohol.
'Alcohol in the supermarket is now the most affordable it's been since 1970 and 70 per cent of alcohol is bought through that channel,' Dr Piper said.
Harmful drinking levels are disproportionately seen in lower-income, more deprived areas, official figures show. There, so-called 'risky drinking' is far more common and that's what is driving up alcohol-related death rates, studies show.
As well as minimum unit pricing, Dr Piper also wants companies to include 'switching language' when promoting zero per cent alcohol, a product which has boomed in popularity.
Using Heineken as an example, this would mean have to include verbage like 'Switch to Heineken 0.0'.
Dr Piper added: 'We are not for an alcohol ban but the "moderation is good for you" argument is kind of nonsense – a small amount of alcohol has never been good for you.
'We don't blame the alcohol industry because it's doing what it needs for their shareholders, but we need governments to stand up when there's market failure and there is absolutely market failure.'
The rise of low and no-alcohol alternatives
The IWSR, a drinks analytics consultancy formerly known as the International Wine and Spirits Record, says the 'no/low' sector is in a 'transformative' period of growth.
Across ten key markets, including the UK, US and Brazil, the firm expects the global sector to swell by over £3billion by 2028.
It also notes that booze purchases among no/low buyers are decreasing, particularly in the beer and wine categories.
In the UK, sober curiosity has even been granted its own month, christened 'Dry January'.
Marketed as a reset after the typically indulgent period over the December holidays, the idea was officially adopted as a campaign by Alcohol Change UK in 2013.
Data provided by the organisation show that participation has more than tripled since 2019, with 4.2million in 2019 swelling to 15.5million people last year.
And the popularity of the 'no/low' movement has extended far beyond one month of the year as a detox.
The British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) noted that 27million pints of non-alcoholic beer were sold in June and July last year across the UK's off-trade – an uplift of 35 per cent in two years.
And the body claims it expects a 20 per cent rise on that figure for 2025.
A recent study by researchers at Oxford University found that Gen Z is embracing the non-alcoholic drinks movement in an act of rebellion, even deeming the choice as 'cool'.
This has given rise to swathes of household brands in the no/low sector, such as non-alcoholic beer brand Lucky Saint and variants by big brewers such as Heineken and Peroni.
Non-alcoholic spirits companies and wines, too, are booming as people seek to avoid the fear of missing out on fun from drinking alcohol.
Craig Chapman, director of brands at drinks producer Global Brands, which owns iconic names such as alcopop VK and Hooch, told MailOnline that this FOMO is driving a part of their company strategy.
'Our research says this is the biggest factor for people looking to cut down but not feel like they're not a part of something,' he said.
VK is synonymous with party culture among university and college students but the zero per cent variant hasn't done quite as well, Mr Chapman said.
'It's doing OK but hasn't set the world alight and we didn't think it would for us,' he added.
'We wanted to include the option for "zebra-striping" (alternating between alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks) Gen Z-ers but it was never meant to overtake the core brand.'
'The days of having such a strong nightclub presence for us is gone because that side of the world has gone for now,' he added.
Declining alcohol consumption is hitting alcohol producers the world over, coupled with regulatory headwinds and higher raw material and energy costs.
The International Organisation of Vine and Wine, the main trade body for vintners, said in April that 2024 global sales fell to 214.2million hectolitres – the lowest level in 60 years.
Wine production, too, fell to 60-year lows at just 225million hectolitres.
The body's annual report said: 'Beyond the short-term economic and geopolitical disruptions, it is important to consider the structural, long-term factors also contributing to the observed decline in wine consumption.'
This includes the average consumer paying roughly 30 per cent more for a bottle now than in 2019, alongside a 12 per cent decline in total consumption in the same time period.
And it's not just wine that's taking a hit.
A 2024 report from leading hops supplier BarthHaas shows a 0.6 per cent drop in beer production volumes across the world's largest brewers for the year.
The findings note that 'many multinational brewers' are dropping ambitious or novel craft brewing investments to shore up core international brands amidst 'mounting' industry challenges.