European countries differ in their drinking habits, according to a study published in the journal Addiction. The survey conducted by a team of European researchers from multiple organisations covers drinking patterns across Europe from 2000 to 2019 and shows that specific areas tend to use the same beverages.
The authors identified several drinking patterns in 2019:
- Wine drinkers include France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Sweden. People in these countries have the highest consumption of wine and the lowest consumption of beer and spirits. They also have the lowest overall alcohol consumption.
- Countries that drink mostly beer include Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, and Spain. These countries are characterised by high beer consumption and relatively low consumption of spirits.
- Binge drinking countries include Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. People in these countries are the most likely to engage in binge drinking and have a high overall alcohol consumption.
- Countries that drink mostly spirits include Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. These countries are characterised by the highest consumption of spirits and beer, and have the highest overall alcohol consumption. People in these countries are less likely to binge but engage in regular high consumption.
- Countries with the highest rates of lifetime abstinence include Ukraine, Bulgaria, and Cyprus. However, these countries also have some people who engage in high consumption of spirits regularly.
- Countries with the highest rate of drinkers include Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, and Malta. Many people in these countries also engage in binge drinking.
Looking back almost 20 years, the authors noticed that the same patterns were also present in the same countries. About 2/3 of the countries stayed in the same cluster for all measurements between 2000 and 2019.
The study also found a link between heavy drinking patterns and alcohol-attributable deaths. For example, countries with high consumption of spirits and high prevalence of binge drinking – including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Bulgaria, and Cyprus — have the highest average alcohol-attributable deaths and health harm.
“Europe’s distinct drinking patterns seem to be deeply rooted in culture and are therefore difficult to change. Since drinking patterns are strongly associated with burden of disease and mortality, we must find ways to change the patterns which characterise 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,” said Dr. Jürgen Rehm from the Centre of Interdisciplinary Addiction Research, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), Hamburg, Germany.
Correia D, Manthey J, Neufeld M, Ferreira-Borges C, Olsen A, Shield K, Rehm J. Classifying national drinking patterns in Europe between 2000 and 2019: A clustering approach using comparable exposure data. Addiction. 2024 Sep;119(9):1543-1553.