Boozy Britain? London is sobering up – and so is the rest of the country

London is the soberest region in the UK, according to new data, showing drinking habits among adults, released today by the Office for National Statistics.

 

Nearly a third of respondents from the Capital said they did not drink any alcohol – far higher than any other region. 

 

 

Across the UK, 21 per cent said that they do not drink alcohol at all, an increase on the 19 per cent of non-drinkers in 2005.  

 

In Scotland and the north east over a third of the adults polled, who drank in the week before they were interviewed, admitted to binge drinking.

 

However, London was placed in the middle of the pack with 24 per cent of adults revealing they had indulged in a binge drinking session.

 

Younger drinkers are more likely to binge drink with 19 per cent of 25 to 44-year-olds and 18 per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds binge drinking in the week before they were interviewed, while just 4 per cent of 65-year-olds and over hit the bottle.

 

 

So, what is causing this drop off in drinking? The ONS said one possible factor could be that underage drinking has been targeted in recent years.

 

The body said: "In 2003 changes were made to the conditions for licensed premises in England and Wales, which made it more difficult for underage drinkers to purchase alcohol themselves. Since then, schemes such as Challenge 21 and Challenge 25 have also been introduced in an effort to reduce the availability of alcohol to underage drinkers.

 

"Although it is not possible to assess the scale to which such factors may have had an impact on the availability of alcohol to underage drinkers, it is likely that when

The government’s alcohol strategy defines binge drinking for men as drinking more than eight units of alcohol, about three pints of strong beer.

 

For women, it’s drinking more than six units of alcohol, equivalent to two large glasses of wine.