Europeans remain the heaviest consumers of alcohol in the world, despite a significant decline in recent years and even if the average consumption per capita is increasing in some emerging countries.
Even though it’s down (-20% in 27 years)Europeans’ alcohol consumption remains the highest in the world, according to a recent study published in the British journal The Lancet.
Conversely, it would increase in certain countries such as China, which displays now consumption levels “higher than some European countries” with 7.4 liters per capita per year, in particular because of “economic transitions and the increase in wealth”, note the researchers. Similarly, alcohol consumption has increased in India.
Men drink more than women
Overall, it doubled between 1990 and 2017 in Southeast Asia and now reaches 4.7 liters per year per adult. Same thing in the Western Pacific region, which includes China, Japan and Australia, where it increased by 54%. L’North Africa and the Middle East consume less than one liter per capita per year. According to the study, every adult in the world consumed 6.5 liters of pure alcohol in 2017 (9.8 liters for men and 2.7 liters for women)compared to 5.9 liters in 1990.
A trend that researchers believe will increase by 2030: according to them, “half of adults will drink alcohol” at least once a year. They estimate that the average consumption in the world will therefore increase to 7.6 liters per year per inhabitant and that 23% of adults will drink at least six glasses during one occasion, at least once a month, whereas only 18.5% did so in 1990.
A worldwide public health issue
Faced with these statistics, they invite the various countries to adopt drastic measures such as “raising taxes, restricting the availability and banning the marketing and advertising of alcohol”, to encourage populations to reduce their consumption, especially because we all know that it is a risk factor for many pathologies.
According to Weekly Epidemiological Bulletin (BEH) published last February, 7% of annual deaths in France are attributable to alcohol, making it the second leading cause of preventable death behind tobacco. In 2015, the number of deaths due to alcohol in France was 41,000 (16,000 from cancer, 9,900 from cardiovascular diseases, 6,800 from digestive diseases and 5,400 from an external cause such as an accident or suicide). . 90% of these deaths were due to consumption of more than five units of pure alcohol per day, specified the authors, Christophe Bonaldi, biostatistician at Public Health France, and Catherine Hill, epidemiologist at the Gustave Roussy Institute.
On a global scale, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), three million deaths a year in the world are attributable to alcohol (75% of these deaths are men).
