Boozers

As a one-time boozer, I was interested to see the short piece at reference 1, where is alleged that the allegation that young people of today are more interested in gyms than public houses and that it is this which is killing these last off, is not true. Boozing is on the down much more generally than that, including, in particular, the people of my own generation as we move into the geriatric zone. We are really cutting down.

A story which has been taken from reference 2 - where it very much looks as if you have to pay for it. Prices on application. But there is the freebie at reference 3: consumption of alcohol, by country, by strength, by year. With year being in columns, starting at 2000 and ending, off snap at 2025.

An impressive amount of data, construction of which would, in the government statistical service, have consumed a great deal of time and effort. But I have not attempted to delve into where these suspiciously detailed looking numbers might come from.

'... In India, the participation rate among high-income earners in urban populations was 77 per cent, up substantially from 67 per cent three years ago. In China, the rate among drinkers in the same cohort was 89 per cent, up from 86 per cent three years ago...'.

But it does look as if we, here in the UK, drink about as much per head as they do in the US. And while they are clearly boozers in China and India, they are not in the same league as us. Which is not quite what I took away from the story in the FT, snapped above. Clearly, I need to take a bit more time.

Maybe I will also take the time, one quiet afternoon, to turn this freebie into something more accessibly statistical, including some population figures.

References

Reference 1: Boomers, not Gen Z, are the generation cutting back most on alcohol: New research overturns assumption that abstinent younger drinkers are behind weak demand - Madeleine Speed, Financial Times - 2026.

Reference 2: https://www.theiwsr.com/insight/inside-the-iwsr-global-trends-report-key-drivers-for-beverage-alcohol-in-2025/.

Reference 3: https://iard.org/science-resources/detail/Alcohol-Consumption-by-Country-and-Beverage-Streng.