As a Times reader, you are by now probably on your third gin. Such is the impression from the headlines. The over-45s are Britain’s most persistent tipplers, said a recent survey. Young readers too, are known to study under the table. Women are likewise absolutely fabulously squiffy these days and the queue for the A&E drunk tank circles the block. Our drink problem is chronic that a minimum price for alcohol could be introduced in tomorrow’s Budget.
Except, that is, in the statistics. The overwhelming evidence is that the vast majority of us are on a sobriety binge. Has so much opinion ever been so at odds with such easily obtained data?
First, the average quantity of alcohol that we say we drink has fallen 20 per cent in five years. That is a big number, the more surprising because so many give the impression that it’s going the other way, our Prime Minister included.
Perhaps Mr Cameron has in mind not the average but the minority who drink to excess. Except that the proportion exceeding recommended limits is also falling. The trends appear steady and consistent across the main surveys. The latest — the General Lifestyle Survey — was published by the Office for National Statistics this month. It said that between 2005 and 2010 average weekly consumption fell steadily from 14.3 units to 11.5 per adult. The proportion exceeding the recommended weekly limit fell from 31 per cent to 26 per cent (men) and 21 to 17 (women). Those admitting to heavy drinking fell by about a third.
All very well, but doesn’t the true problem lie with the young? “These changes were driven by falls in the younger age groups,” says the survey. The proportion of male 16 to 24-year- olds exceeding the limit fell by a third. For young women it was a quarter.
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Yes, but what matters is the subset of the wasted and the criminal. As the Prime Minister has said: “We’ve seen a frightening growth in the number of people who think it’s acceptable to get drunk in public in ways that wreck lives, spread fear and increase crime.”
Data, anyone? The figures for alcohol-attributable recorded crime fell by about a quarter in England in the past five years, according to Local Alcohol Profiles for England.
One must take care with statistics, especially self-reported behaviour. So, are we lying? Our story finds support in alcohol sales data. This has fallen, in both value and volume, from about 11.6 litres of pure alcohol per adult per year in 2004, to about 10 litres in 2011.
Of course, we might argue that the figures remain too high. The trends might reverse. But the overwhelming direction? Down. More tea?
Michael Blastland is a writer and broadcaster