Tuesday, 7 December 2010

A bit of pre-Xmas cheer

From The Metro: Britain is 'world's booziest nation', new survey reveals

Ah well, at least we're Number One in something.

7 comments:

View from the Solent said...

Hmm. Based on asking people how much they drank. Not very reliable,

According to this (2009 data) we're 4th in Europe, let alone the world. http://www.who.int/topics/alcohol_drinking/en/.

Not sure where those data come from. Latest data on WHO site is 2005. That makes us 12th in Europe. From WHO. Under 'STATISTICS', and submit a query.

(sales per capita for age 15+, normalized to litres of pure alcohol)

Curmudgeon said...

I've read recently that our per capita alcohol consumption is actually below the EU average. Saying that we have the highest proportion of drinkers, and the highest proportion of regular drinkers, proves nothing.

Actually I would have said that Brits were more prone to irregular binges, and less likely to indulge in the Southern European "little but often" approach to alcohol.

Mark Wadsworth said...

VFTS, that was my first thought. But sometimes winning by cheating is even more satisfying that winning fair and square.

Mark Wadsworth said...

C, you are spoiling it now. So much for pre-Xmas cheer :-(

Curmudgeon said...

According to this, the Irish are the champion pissheads of Europe (the Luxembourg figures are distorted by cross-border shopping).

Also contains the statement: "The intention of some younger drinkers is actually to get drunk/merry when heading out on an evening to drink." I'm truly shocked...

Mark Wadsworth said...

JH, I vaguely remember reading some shock-horror statistic about Russians and vodka, but when you convert it to litre of pure alcohol per capita, they drink less than we do, and we are not (as the above commenters point out) exactly number one.

C, is there any other reason? That's why I never drink at lunch time because stopping is Hell.

Leg-iron said...

I'm doing my bit.

Cheers!