According to Statistics Norway, one third of us have been drinking alcohol at least once a week in the last year. It was similar last year.
While adults and older people drink more often than young people, teenagers drink more once they drink alcohol. The Spring and Fall 2023 Tobacco and Substance Use Survey, conducted in collaboration with the Public Health Institute (FHI), found that 34 percent of the adult population (ages 16 to 79) drank alcohol at least once a week in the past 12 months . Last year the figure was 36 percent.
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Men drink more often than women
- Alcohol is the most popular drug in Norway. Most of us have drunk alcohol in the last year, but the frequency of drinking varies. One fourth of respondents admit to drinking monthly, and one fourth drinks less than once a month. While 17 percent had not drank at all in the last year, says Elin Skretting Lunde, senior advisor at Statistics Norway.
Men drink both more often and more than women. They reported drinking alcohol at least once a week, 39 percent of men compared to 28 percent of women. We see a slight decline here compared to last year, when the percentages were 42 and 29 percent, respectively.
Alcohol sales data shows a decline in sales in 2022, and this decline appears to continue in 2023. Sales during the pandemic alcohol in Norway increased, among other things, due to restrictions that affected the possibilities of "tourist" imports and purchases in duty-free shops. While alcohol consumption patterns remained stable in the population, there was a decline for some groups. The gap between men and women was quite stable over time, but was smaller than usual at the beginning of the pandemic (2020). Over the five-year period, the percentage of men drinking alcohol at least once a week ranged between 37 and 42 percent, while the percentage of women was between 28 and 31 percent.
The percentage of people drinking alcohol once a week is slightly higher in the Oslo and Viken region (40 percent) and in Trøndelag (37 percent) than in other parts of the country. The lowest percentage is in Agder/Sør-Østlandet and on the west coast - 28 percent. There is also a difference by place of residence: the percentage of people drinking alcohol once a week in urban areas is 35 percent, compared to 30 percent in rural areas.
Most young people drink a lot of alcohol
While around 40 percent of middle-aged and older people drink alcohol every week, this applies to only 25 percent of young people aged 16 to 24. However, once young people reach for alcohol, they drink more of it. That's 11 percent of 16-24-year-olds drinking at least six units of alcohol at one event in the last year, compared to just 3 percent of adults and older people over 45.
There are very few people who regularly drink six or more units of alcohol on one occasion, that's 5 percent of the population. This percentage has remained stable between 4 and 6 percent over recent years. About one in ten people admit to drinking at least six units a month, a third say they do so less than once a month, while half say they never drink that much. Looking at the changes over the last five years, we also notice some smaller changes related to the pandemic. In the pandemic year of 2021, there were fewer young people who drank heavily of alcohol regularly (5 percent), while this increased to 13 percent in 2022 when most coronavirus measures were lifted. In 2023, we see the percentage of young people who consumed at least six units of alcohol during one event approaching pre-pandemic levels.
Standard unit of alcohol (SJA) is 10 g or 12,5 ml of pure ethyl alcohol (ethanol).
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Source: Statistics Norway
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