The number of British “binge” drinkers has risen by 13 per cent, with women who drink heavily increasing by nearly 60 per cent, a report by the World Health Organisation has found.
Data from the WHO revealed that in 2016, 29.8 per cent of people in the UK reported that they engaged in “heavy episodic drinking”. By 2019 this figure had increased to 33.6 per cent.
Women drove the increase, with the number of heavy drinkers rising by 57 per cent, from 13.8 per cent in 2016 to 21.7 per cent three years later.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, said: “Substance use severely harms individual health, increasing the risk of chronic diseases, mental health conditions, and tragically resulting in millions of preventable deaths every year.
“It places a heavy burden on families and communities, increasing exposure to accidents, injuries and violence.
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“To build a healthier, more equitable society we must urgently commit to bold actions that reduce the negative health and social consequences of alcohol consumption and make treatment for substance use disorders accessible and affordable.”
The report also found that 78.3 per cent of people over 15 in the UK were “current drinkers” with 85.3 per cent of men and 71.5 per cent of women reporting that they had had a drink in the last year.
Globally, the report showed that total alcohol consumption per person fell from 5.7 litres in 2010 to 5.5 litres in 2019. The highest levels of consumption were in Europe, followed by America.
A total of 2.6 million deaths per year are attributable to alcohol consumption, accounting for nearly 5 per cent of all deaths worldwide.
Dr Richard Piper, chief executive of Alcohol Change UK, said: “The health harms caused by alcohol are affecting tens of thousands of people every year and the heartbreaking thing is that this is totally avoidable.
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“Alcohol causes harm to more people in the UK than most of us realise and this ripples out to families, communities and society.
“That’s why it’s so important to put preventive measures in place to stop the harm before it happens. We urgently need the whole-population approaches that are proven to work.
“That means having proper controls on alcohol marketing, especially online; minimum unit pricing for alcohol so that strong alcohol can’t be sold at pocket-money prices; better support and treatment, and proper alcohol labelling so all of us are properly informed about what’s in our drinks.”
The WHO report captures drinking behaviours only until 2019, and so does not reflect any increases in alcohol consumption after the pandemic. It is widely understood that alcohol consumption has increased, with heavier drinking during the pandemic causing 2,500 more deaths in 2022, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The official figures showed there was a 33 per cent increase in deaths from alcohol, with 10,048 people dying from alcohol-specific causes in 2022 — the highest annual total since records began in 2001, and is a sharp increase from the pre-pandemic figures.
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“Research has suggested that people who were already drinking at high levels before the pandemic were the most likely to have increased their drinking during this period,” David Mais, a health statistician at the ONS, said.
“This is likely a factor in the increase in alcohol-specific deaths registrations we have seen in 2022. Alcoholic liver disease was the leading cause of these deaths, and as with previous years, rates are much higher among men [around double the rate].”
