Binge drinking – the facts

The Herald ~ October 11 2005
The UK government advises that men drink no more than three to four units a day and women no more than two to three. But the system is confusing – a drink does not equate to a unit.
A large glass (250ml) of red wine at 12% is three units, a small glass (125ml) 1.5 units and a bottle of the same wine contains nine units. A pint of Stella Artois (at 5.2%) comes in at three units, a small measure of Famous Grouse is one unit and a Bacardi Breezer is 1.4 units.
Consumption in the UK is in the top 10 in the world for alcohol consumption per head of population and more than 90% of the Scottish population aged between 16 and 74 drink alcohol.
Men and women in England drink more frequently than those in Scotland, but Scots are more likely to exceed daily benchmarks. In Scotland, according to latest government figures, the average weekly consumption for men age between 16 and 64 is 19.8 units and women 7.4 units.

Binge drinking
Binge drinking happens across all ages, but is more visible in young men and women out on a Friday and Saturday night in Scotland.
The increase in the number of children drinking has also caused alarm. Just under half
of 15-year-olds and a third of 13-year-olds report drinking alcohol in the past week.
Young people (aged between 16 and 25) are drinking more, with the average consumption now at 23.4 units for men and 10 units for women in Scotland.

The cost
Binge-drinking is estimated to cost the Scottish economy more than £1bn each year. Alcohol problems cost Scotland an estimated £1.1bn per year in terms of the NHS, social work, police, emergency services and the wider economic and human costs.
Each year, there are almost 2000 alcohol-related deaths in Scotland – more than five a day – and about 10% of all accident and emergency admissions are rooted in alcohol abuse.

Crime
A recent United Nations report said Scotland is the most violent country in the developed world. It showed that more than 2000 Scots are attacked every week – almost 10 times the official police figures.
Figures published by the World Health Organisation showed Scotland has the second-highest murder rate in Western Europe.
Of 451 murder victims in Scotland between 2000 and 2003, 50% were drunk at the time while almost half of 598 suspected killers over the same period were also drunk.

How we compare
A recent survey found that Canadian men and Swedish women were the worst binge drinkers in volume of alcohol consumed.
Overall, the heaviest drinkers are Danish men and women, who most often consumed six or more drinks on one occasion.
But men and women in the United Kingdom have the highest annual frequency of heavy drinking (defined as drinking a bottle of wine or the equivalent on one occasion), and people in France the lowest.