In the EU 8.4% of the population drinks alcohol every day. Binge drinking, well done Italy

In 2019, 8.4% of the adult population of the European Union consumed alcohol every day, 28.8% on a weekly basis, 22.8% once a month, and 26.2% finally declared themselves teetotal or did not consume alcohol in the last 12 months. To say this, data collected by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Union, which reveal how daily alcohol consumption increases as age increases: the lowest share of those who consume alcohol more frequently (i.e., every day) is recorded in the 15-24 age group (1%) while the highest share among people over 75 (16%), an age group that also includes the highest share among those who have never consumed alcohol or had not consumed any in the last 12 months of 2019 (40.3%). Weekly alcohol consumption was fairly stable across all age groups between 25 and 64, with the highest share among those aged 45-54 (33.5%). Monthly consumption, or even less than once a month, decreased with age, with people aged 25-34 having the highest share of monthly alcohol consumption (28.5%).

The highest share of people who drink alcohol on a daily basis is in Portugal, with one-fifth (20.7%) of the population consuming alcohol on a daily basis, followed by Spain (13%) and Italy (12.1%), while the lowest is in Lithuania and Latvia, with a share of daily consumers of just 1%. In the Netherlands, nearly half the population (47.3%) consumes alcohol on a weekly basis, followed closely by Luxembourg (43.1%) and Belgium (40.8%), while the highest monthly consumption in the EU was in Lithuania (31.3%), Latvia (31.1%) and Cyprus (30.4%). Among EU member states, Croatia reported the highest share of the population (38.3%) that never consumed alcohol or had not consumed any in the past 12 months.
Daily and weekly alcohol consumption is more common among men than among women: 13% of men versus 4.1% of women, and 36.4% of men versus 21.7% of women, respectively. The greatest gender gaps were found in Portugal (33.4% versus 9.7%) and Spain (20.2% versus 6.1%) for daily consumption and in Romania (32.2% versus 6.6%) and Slovakia (30.6% versus 8.8%) for weekly consumption. In all EU countries, women account for a significantly higher proportion of those who have never consumed alcohol or have not consumed any in the past 12 months: the largest gender gap was found in Cyprus (12.8% men versus 44.2% women), Bulgaria (16.2% versus 42.0%) and Italy (21.5% versus 46.7%).
Heavy episodic drinking - so-called binge drinking, defined as consuming the equivalent of more than 60 g of pure ethanol on a single occasion - among EU member states falls within a range from 4% in Cyprus and Italy to 38% in Denmark: many adults have admitted to overconsuming alcohol at least once a month. Among these, the majority did so on a monthly basis, while a small number even did so once a week. It is not surprising to see the data from Italy, a country where the culture of wine and good drinking is particularly rooted, with the excesses of the nightlife less and less fashionable among young people.