BRIEFING PAPER
Number CBP7626, 30 January 2017
Statistics on Alcohol
By Rachael Harker
Contents:
1. Background
2. Drinking among adults
3. Drinking among young
people
4. Alcohol-related NHS hospital
activity and treatment
5. Alcohol-related deaths
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2
Statistics on Alcohol
Contents
Summary
3
1.
Background
4
2.
Drinking among adults
5
3.
Drinking among young people
6
4.
Alcohol-related NHS hospital activity and treatment
7
5.
Alcohol-related deaths
8
Cover page image attributed to: Regan76, Ahh the colours of fall. Licensed by
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0) / image
cropped
3
Commons Library Briefing, 22 June 2016
Summary
Following a declining trend between 2005 and 2012, the proportion of men and women
drinking in the past week in Great Britain has remained stable over the past three years of
available data.
Men continue to be more likely to drink than women and young adults drink less
frequently than older age groups. However, young adults are more likely to exceed daily
benchmarks regarding alcohol consumption.
In 2014, 8% of children aged 11-15 in England drank alcohol in the last week; this was
the lowest level recorded since a peak of 27% in 1996. Most pupils who drank in the last
week had done so on one or two days (63% and 25% respectively). On the days they did
drink, 45% drank more than four units of alcohol on average.
Alcohol-related conditions were responsible for 104,030 hospital admissions in England in
2014/15. In 2014/15 there were 35,059 alcohol-related stays for patients resident in
Scotland.
There were 8,680 alcohol related deaths in the UK in 2014. Alcoholic liver disease was the
most common cause of death.
4
Statistics on Alcohol
1. Background
The last Labour Government’s Public Health White Paper Savings Lives:
Our Healthier Nation, set out the first set of plans to publish a strategy
to tackle alcohol misuse. In March 2004 the Government published the
Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy for England 1, which contained a series
of measures intended to reduce the harm caused by alcohol misuse.
This included:
• tackling alcohol-related disorder in town and city centres;
• improving treatment and support for people with alcohol
problems;
• clamping down on irresponsible promotions by the industry; and
• providing better information to consumers about the dangers of
alcohol misuse.
Safe. Sensible. Social. The next steps in the National Alcohol Strategy2
was published on 5 June 2007, and contained a detailed programme of
work to minimise the health harms, violence and antisocial behaviour
associated with alcohol, while ensuring that people are able to enjoy
alcohol safely and responsibly.
The previous Coalition Government’s Alcohol Strategy 3 was published
in 2012. The strategy set out proposals to crackdown on ‘binge
drinking’ culture, reduce alcohol fueled violence and disorder, and
substantially reduce the number of people drinking to damaging levels.
The strategy included commitments to:
•
•
•
•
consult on a minimum unit price for alcohol
consult on a ban on the sale of multi-buy alcohol discounting
introduce stronger powers for local areas to control the density
of licensed premises including making the impact on health a
consideration for this
pilot innovative sobriety schemes to challenge alcohol-related
offending
The present Government remain committed to the 2012 Alcohol
Strategy and as at October 2015 there were no immediate plans to
update the strategy. (19 October 2015, PQ 12330, - Alcohol Strategy) 4
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/cab
inetoffice/strategy/assets/caboffce%20alcoholhar.pdf
2
http://www.ias.org.uk/resources/ukreports/revnational-strategy.pdf
3
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/alcohol-strategy
4
http://www.parliament.uk/written-questions-answers-statements/writtenquestion/commons/2015-10-19/12330
1
5
Commons Library Briefing, 22 June 2016
2. Drinking among adults
The main source of data on drinking among adults is the Opinions
and Lifestyle, Drinking Habits Amongst Adults Survey (OPN) carried
out by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This is an annual
survey covering adults aged 16 and over living in private households
in Great Britain.
The most recent survey report Adult Drinking Habits in Great Britain
2014 5 found that 58% of adults reported drinking alcohol in the last
week.
Men were more likely to drink than women (64% of men and 53% of
women drank alcohol during the previous week). Men also drank more
frequently than women. Fourteen per cent of men compared with eight
per cent of women drank on at least five of the preceding seven days.
Drinking alcohol in the past week (%)
80
70
Men
60
Women
50
40
30
Following a declining trend between 2005 and 2012, the proportion of
men and women drinking in the past week has remained stable over
the past three years of available data.
Young people were less likely to have consumed alcohol; just under half
(48%) of 16 to 24 year olds reported drinking alcohol in the previous
week, compared with 66% of those aged 45 to 64. They also drank less
frequently; 7% of men and 2% of women aged 16-24 had drunk on 5
or more days during the previous week compared with 27% of men
and 14% of women aged 65 and over.
20
10
0
2005
30
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
Drank alcohol on five on more days in the last week
(%)
Men
Women
20
10
0
16 to 24
However, young people were more likely to exceed the daily
benchmarks. 6 Among 16 to 24 year old drinkers, 17% consumed more
than 14 units compared with 2% of those aged 65 and over.
25 to 44
45 to 64
65 and over
Drank over 14 units in a single day (%)
20
The 2014 data showed variations in alcohol consumption between
regions. London had the lowest percentage of people who had drunk
alcohol in the previous week (51%), followed by Wales (53%). The
highest percentages were in the South East (62%) and the South West
(62%).
10
0
16 to 24
25 to 44
45 to 64
65 and over
Drinking over 14 units in a day (%)
In terms of excessive drinking, the percentage of people drinking their
weekly limit in one day was highest for Wales (14%) and Scotland
(13%) and lowest for the East of England and the West Midlands (both
at 6%.)
Wales
Scotland
North West
Yorkshire and The Humber
North East
South West
England
East Midlands
South East
London
East of England
West Midlands
0
5
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/drugusealcoholands
moking/bulletins/opinionsandlifestylesurveyadultdrinkinghabitsingreatbritain/2014
6
On 8 January 2016, the government released new proposed guidance on alcohol consumption.
These guidelines recommend that adults do not regularly drink more than 14 units in a week, with
these units being spread over at least 3 days.
5
10
15
6
Statistics on Alcohol
3. Drinking among young people
The Smoking, drinking and drug use among young people in England
survey series provides data on use of alcohol among school pupils in
England. The latest data 7 shows that in 2014, 8% of children aged 1115 in England drank alcohol in the last week; this was the lowest level
recorded since a peak of 27% in 1996. The proportion of pupils in this
age group who have never drunk alcohol has risen in recent years, from
38% in 2003 to 66% in 2014.
The proportion of children drinking alcohol increases sharply with age:
for example, only 1% of 11 year old boys drank in the past week,
compared with 20% of those aged 15. Among girls, 17% of 15 year
olds reported drinking in the past week but less than 0.5% of 11 year
olds girls did.
Drinking alcohol in the past week (%)
Boys
Girls
25
20
15
10
5
0
11 years
In 2014, the mean amount of alcohol consumed by pupils who had
drunk in the last week was 9.8 units. Most pupils who drank in the last
week had done so on one or two days (63% and 25% respectively). On
the days they did drink, 45% drank more than four units on average.
Pupils who drank in the last week were most likely to have drunk beer,
lager or cider (72%), followed by spirits (59%), alcopops (40%) or
wine, martini and sherry (38%). Boys and girls had different
preferences. Boys were more likely than girls to have drunk beer, lager
or cider in the last week (85%, compared with 59% respectively).
While girls were more to have drunk spirits (73% of girls, 45% of
boys), alcopops (52% and 28% respectively) or wine, martini or sherry
(48% and 28% respectively).
7
http://www.hscic.gov.uk/article/2021/WebsiteSearch?productid=18273&q=smking%2c+drinking+and+drug&sort=Relevance&size=10&page=1&area=both#top
12 years
13 years
14 years
15 years
Type of alcohol drunk in the past week (%)
Boys
Girls
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Beer, lager, cider
Shandy
Wine, martini,
sherry
Spirits
Alcopops
7
Commons Library Briefing, 22 June 2016
4. Alcohol-related NHS hospital
activity and treatment
Alcohol misuse is a major cause of attendance and admission to general
hospitals in both the A&E/trauma and non-emergency settings. It may
be directly responsible for admission or together with other causes
contribute to hospital admission. Around 70% of A&E attendances
between midnight and 5am on weekend nights are alcohol-related. 8
NHS Hospital Episode Statistics for England 9 show that there were
333,340 hospital admissions which were attributable to alcohol; 62% of
those admitted were males. Of these admissions, 104.203 were wholly
attributable to alcohol, an increase of 54% since 2003/04 (67,490
wholly attributable admissions).
Figures for Scotland 10, show that in 2014/15, there were 35,059
alcohol-related stays for patients resident in Scotland; a rate of 671.7
stays per 100,000 population. These figures represent a decrease on
the 2013/14 figure and rate - 36,714 alcohol-related stays (706.5 per
100,000 population).
Overall, 51% of clients in treatment in 2014-15 presented with
problematic alcohol use, 89,107 of these individuals presented with
alcohol alone, with the other 61,533 individuals also reporting
problematic use of other substances.
Data from the National Treatment Agency (NTA) 11for England shows
that there were 85,035 adult clients (aged 18 and over) in treatment
solely due to problematic alcohol use in 2015/16. An additional
59,873 people were also being treated for problematic use of
alcohol in combination with other substances. In total problematic
alcohol use was an issue for over 51% of clients monitored by the
NTA
NTA data for children and young people 12 (aged up to 17 years) who
access specialist substance misuse services found that alcohol was
the second most cited substance (48%) in 2015/16. However,
numbers in treatment for alcohol problems have been declining
steadily in recent years and this figure is lower than the two-thirds
(67%) reported in 2009/10.
8
Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy for England (2004)
http://www.strategy.gov.uk/downloads/su/alcohol/pdf/CabOffce%20AlcoholHar.pdf
9
http://content.digital.nhs.uk/catalogue/PUB20999
10
http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Drugs-and-Alcohol-Misuse/Publications/2015-1013/2015-10-13-ARHS2014-15-Report.pdf?
11
http://www.nta.nhs.uk/statistics.aspx
12
http://www.nta.nhs.uk/uploads/young-peoples-statistics-from-the-ndtms-1-april-2015-to-31march-2016.pdf
8
Statistics on Alcohol
5. Alcohol-related deaths
Alcohol misuse can be directly linked to deaths from certain types of
disease, such as liver cirrhosis, and in some cases it may also be
associated with other causes of death, such as stroke. ONS Data on
Alcohol related deaths in the United Kingdom show that there were
were 8,680 alcohol related deaths across the UK in 2014. The table
below shows the number of deaths with an alcohol-related underlying
cause for each nation of the UK. Alcoholic liver disease was the most
common cause of death in all nations, followed by fibrosis and cirrhosis
of the liver.
Alcohol-related deaths by cause, 2014
ICD 10 code
England
Mental and behavioural disorders due to use of alcohol
Wales Scotland
Northern
Ireland
UK
489
19
280
27
815
13
1
0
0
14
Alcoholic polyneuropathy
0
0
0
0
0
Alcoholic cardiomyopathy
84
5
9
1
99
Degeneration of nervous system due to alcohol
Alcoholic gastritis
Alcoholic liver disease
Chronic hepatitis, not elsewhere classified
Fibrosis and cirrhosis of liver
Alcohol induced chronic pancreatitis
Accidental poisoning by and exposure to alcohol
Intentional self-poisoning by and exposure to alcohol
Poisoning by and exposure to alcohol, undetermined intent
Total
5
1
1
2
9
4,333
299
658
150
5,440
5
0
0
0
5
1,520
111
137
22
1,790
11
0
4
0
15
369
23
61
36
489
2
0
2
0
4
0
0
6,831
0
0
459
0
0
1,152
0
0
238
0
0
8,680
The number of deaths can also be expressed per 100,000
standardised population to enable comparisons between countries
of the UK. The 2014 rate of alcohol-related deaths among males
was much higher in Scotland than other countries of the UK: 31.2
deaths per 100,000 for males in Scotland compared with rates of
18.1 in England, 19.9 in Wales and 20.3 in Northern Ireland.
Male alcohol related death rate
60
England
Wales
Northern Ireland
Scotland
50
40
30
20
10
0
1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008
Source: ONS Alcohol related deaths in the United Kingdom
2010
2012
2014
Scotland has shown the highest alcohol-related death rates for
males over the past 20 years. However, Scotland did see the most
substantial decrease in male alcohol-related death rates between
2003, when its rate peaked at 47.7 deaths per 100,000, and
2014 (31.2 deaths per 100,000).
9
Commons Library Briefing, 22 June 2016
Among females the 2014 rate in Scotland was also higher than in
other UK countries.
Female alcohol-related death rate
England
25
Wales
Northern Ireland
Scotland
20
15
10
5
0
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
Source: ONS Alcohol related deaths in the United Kingdom
There were 13.3 female alcohol-related deaths per 100,000 in
Scotland, which was significantly higher than the rate for England
(9.1) and Northern Ireland (8.5), but not significantly different
from that in Wales (10.4).
In each UK country, alcohol-related death rates increased in the
1990s before peaking in the mid to late 2000s. The increase in
rates up to 2006 was noticeably steeper in Scotland than
elsewhere.
Since peaking, rates in some countries have fallen significantly to
date, while others have remained relatively stable. England and
Wales are the only UK countries where the age-standardised
alcohol-related death rates for females were significantly higher in
2014 than 1994.
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