Autumn is awash with alcohol, and not just because of the new vintage. Oktoberfest plays a part, too, the 16-day festival in Munich that we associate with massive beer mugs and plenty of debauchery. Its success has prompted copycat events around the world, from London to Ontario, Glasgow to Cincinnati. Such indulgence adds further fuel to the fear that we’re getting drunker than ever. But are we?
Recent statistics seem to bear this out. There are many worrying examples – like the million drink-related UK hospital admissions in 2013 alone. Similar figures can be found the world over. But if you look at European drinking habits in a historic perspective, other evidence suggests that our levels of intake are not unprecedented.
Let’s face it: while the roots of the Oktoberfest stretch to the early 19th century, Europeans have a much longer tradition of periodic alcohol excess: carnivals, church dedication feasts and numerous rites of passage have existed from as early as our records begin.
More generally still, drinking has always been an integral feature of European culture, be it as an indispensable part of people’s diets or a facilitator of countless forms of social exchange.
Booze Today
Let’s start with the present. At this year’s Oktoberfest, 6.3 million visitors downed 6.5 million liters (1.72 million gallons) of beer at this year’s Oktoberfest, a little over one liter per (33.8 ounces) person on average. Widening the perspective from the local to the global, the Kirin Beer University Report, based on returns from brewers’ associations and the latest industry statistics, sees China as the largest beer-consuming country in the world for the tenth consecutive year, with a remarkable 23.6% of the world market.
But the picture is different when measuring in a unit that adjusts for the varying strengths of beer, wine and spirits – in terms of pure ethyl alcohol. According to the World Health Organization’s Global Status Report on Alcohol 2004, the biggest drinkers are actually the Czechs, with 9.43 liters (2.49 gallons) of ethyl alcohol per head. This is equivalent to roughly 232 pints or 132 liters (34.87 gallons) of lager per year (or 0.3 liters/10.14 ounces per day). Germany ranks 4th and the UK 9th, with 5.97 liters (1.58 gallons). The corresponding list for wine is headed by Luxembourg with 9.43 liters (2.49 gallons), followed by France, Portugal and Italy; the spirits chart by the Republic of Moldova (10.94 liters/2.89 gallons), with Reunion and Russia in 2nd and 3rd place. Over the years, trends can go up as well as down.
