100,000 alcoholics clinging to a rock?... Jersey among top nations for drinking levels

Thursday 20 April 2023

It's previously been said that Jersey is '100,000 alcoholics clinging to a rock'... but how true is that? According to a new report, the island is second only to Latvia for alcohol consumption when compared to OECD countries.

Released today, the Government's Alcohol Profile 2022 showed that the average alcohol consumption per Jersey adult in 2022 was 12 litres of pure alcohol per year – equivalent to around 8.1 pints of beer or 2.6 bottles of wine per week.

Pictured: The alcohol consumption averaged 8.7 litres per person across OECD countries, with Jersey's averaging at 12.0 litres 

Over the period 2014 to 2022, the proportion of adults who reported binge drinking at a frequency of monthly or more has stayed relatively constant (between 34% and 33%).

Alcohol played a role in almost one in six of all crimes recorded in Jersey in 2022. Around three in 10 (32%) assaults and serious assaults, one in nine (11%) of domestic assaults, and almost a quarter (23%) of offences in the St. Helier night-time economy involved alcohol.

However, the report also showed that the number of 16 to 34 year olds who are tee-total in Jersey has doubled between 2014 and 2022.

The full report can be read here.

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