European countries differ in their drinking styles, research shows

A new study of drinking patterns across Europe from 2000 to 2019 shows that drinking occurs in stable, drink-specific clusters that appear to be partly determined by geography. The study was published today by the scientific journal Addiction.

The research identified six drinking patterns in Europe in 2019:

• Wine drinking countries: France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Sweden. Characterized by the highest consumption of wine, the lowest consumption of beer and spirits, and the lowest total alcohol consumption.
• Countries that drink a lot of beer/little alcohol: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia and Spain. Characterized by a high consumption of beer, a relatively low consumption of spirits and the highest consumption abroad.
• Countries with a lot of beer/binge drinking: Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. Characterized by high general alcohol consumption, with the highest beer consumption and a high prevalence of heavy incidental alcohol consumption.
• Countries with high alcohol consumption: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Characterized by the highest consumption of spirits, but also by high beer consumption, resulting in the highest total alcohol consumption, but the lowest wine consumption and little binge drinking – instead of regular high consumption.
• Countries with high alcohol consumption/long abstinence: Ukraine, Bulgaria and Cyprus. Characterized by the lowest prevalence of drinkers (and the highest prevalence of teetotalers), but high and regular consumption of spirits.
• Countries with a high prevalence of current and binge drinking: Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg and Malta. Characterized by the highest prevalence of drinkers and binge drinking.

Looking back almost two decades, there were the same overall clusters from 2000 to 2019, with two-thirds of countries remaining in the same cluster across all measurements.

The study found significant links between drinking patterns and alcohol-attributable deaths and health damage (measured in terms of ‘disability-adjusted life years’: the number of years lost due to poor health, disability or premature death). Countries with high liquor consumption and/or high prevalence of binge drinking – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Cyprus – had the highest average alcohol-related deaths and health damage.

Co-author Dr. Jürgen Rehm notes: “Europe’s specific drinking patterns seem to be deeply rooted in culture and are therefore difficult to change. Because drinking patterns are strongly associated with disease burden and mortality, we need to find ways to change the patterns that alcohol policies for this change are available and should be considered by all European countries as overall drinking levels in this region are still high.

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