A new study of drinking patterns across Europe from 2000 to 2019 show that European countries fall into six key, sometimes geographical blocks shaped by local drinks and cultural preferences.
And, despite a fast-changing world, these have remained largely unchanged over the last 19 years. Here's what the study reveals.
Wine-drinking countries: France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Sweden. These countries – which include the world’s largest and second largest wine producers (France and Italy) – have the highest consumption of wine. But they also have the lowest consumption of beer and spirits. With wine traditionally a drink consumed in moderation and often with meals – alongside low consumption of beer and spirits – these countries also have the lowest overall alcohol consumption.
High beer/low spirit drinking countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, and Spain. These are characterized by high consumption of beer, but alongside a relatively low consumption of spirits.
High beer / binge drinking countries: Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. These have high overall alcohol consumption: led by the highest consumption of beer and high prevalence of heavy episodic drinking.
High spirit drinking countries: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. These countries have the highest consumption of spirits alongside high beer consumption, resulting in the highest overall alcohol consumption. Binge drinking is less common; but people often have regular high alcohol consumption.
High spirit drinking / high lifetime abstinence countries: Ukraine, Bulgaria, and Cyprus. This area has curious characteristics: high and regular consumption of spirits, but also the highest prevalence of lifetime abstainers.
Countries with high prevalence of current and binge drinking: Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, and Malta. These countries have highest prevalence of drinkers and binge drinking.
Old habits die hard
The study was published in the scientific journal Addiction, with authors noting that countries with high consumption of spirits and/or high levels of binge drinking also had the highest average alcohol-attributable deaths and health harm (these were: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Bulgaria, and Cyprus).
“Europe’s distinct drinking patterns seem to be deeply rooted in culture and are therefore difficult to change,” said Dr. Jürgen Rehm, co-author of the study.
“Since drinking patterns are strongly associated with burden of disease and mortality, we must find ways to change the patterns which characterize the clusters with the highest alcohol-attributable burden. Alcohol policies for this change are available and should be considered by all European countries, as the overall level of drinking is still high in this region.”
Source:
'Classifying national drinking patterns in Europe between 2000 and 2019: A clustering approach using comparable exposure data': https://doi.org/10.1111/add.16567
