Islanders drinking more than most European countries

Saturday 26 February 2022

Islanders are drinking eight pints or 2.5 bottles of wine per week on average - outstripping the level of boozing in the UK, Ireland, Poland and Germany, among others.

Despite alcohol consumption falling by a sixth in Jersey over the past decade, drinking levels are still higher than most OECD countries (11.5 litres of pure alcohol per person per year) - bar Latvia, Austria and Czech Republic.

The latest figures for Jersey featured in a newly-released Government report covering the consumption of alcohol in Jersey, and subsequent effects on health, wellbeing and crime.

2017 marked the last time a similar report was released, and this latest publication covers the subsequent four years up until 2021.

It showed that Jersey had a 17% higher consumption of alcohol than in the UK.

Local adults also were 14% less likely to be tee-total than those in England.

Jersey's boozing also surpassed its neighbour - latest figures for Guernsey put consumption at 10.6 litres per head.

Pictured: Although alcohol consumption in Jersey has steadily fallen since 2000, locals still drink significantly more than in the UK.

The number of people whose drinking was considered potentially hazardous in Jersey was one in four, compared to one in five people across the water who were found to have a drinking problem.

In 2019, there were 777 hospital admissions due to alcohol - a higher rate of admission per 100,000 than in the UK. Three quarters of those were men.

Men in Jersey were found to be more likely to exceed the weekly recommended alcohol intake of 14 units, with 28% doing so on a weekly basis compared to 11% of women.

It was also reported that alcohol played a role in almost one in five of all crimes recorded in Jersey in 2020.

Pictured: Jersey has a higher rate of alcohol-related hospital admissions than the UK.

Roughly a third of assaults, including serious assaults and domestic incidents, involved alcohol in some way.

Similarly, 32% of offences “in the St. Helier night-time economy” were alcohol-related.

It was noted that due to the pandemic some data for 2020 and 2021 was not available for use in the report, making it “challenging to interpret all Jersey’s alcohol trends with certainty”. Estimates and projections had been used to determine key indicators.

Even though there were a “lack of significant changes” in alcohol indicators over the last few years, it was stated that this “did not mean the pandemic has had no impact at all on alcohol trends”.

More analysis to follow on Express on Monday...

EXPLORE...

Click to explore the latest available data on alcohol consumption in OECD nations. At an average of 11.5 litres per person aged 15 years and older, Jersey is just ahead of France and Hungary...