Cyprus Mail 7 August 2021 - by Staff Reporter
Four per cent of the adult population in Cyprus consumes alcohol daily – half the EU27 average — while 29 per cent never consumed or had not consumed any in the last 12 months, according to figures for 2019 published by Eurostat on Friday.
Women were particularly likely not to drink, with Cyprus recording the largest gender gap among those who never drink in the EU27 (12.8% men vs. 44.2 % women).
Moreover, as regards heavy drinking episodes Cyprus and Italy had the lowest percentage of adults (4%) who reported taking part in heavy drinking episodes at least once a month.
According to Eurostat, in 2019, 8.4% of the EU adult population consumed alcohol daily, 28.8% weekly, 22.8% monthly and 26.2% never consumed or hadn’t consumed any in the last 12 months.
The equivalent figures for Cyprus were 4% (daily), 17% (weekly), 30.4% (monthly) and 29% (never consumed or hadn’t consumed any in the last 12 months.)
Eurostat noted that daily consumption of alcohol was found to increase with age. The lowest share of those who consumed alcohol every day was recorded among those aged 15 to 24 (1.0%) while the highest share in people of 75 or over (16.0%). However, the latter age group also accounted for the highest share that never consumed alcohol or had not consumed any in the past 12 months (40.3%).
In Cyprus, the figures for daily consumption were: 15-24 age group — 0.6%, 25 to 34 age group — 2.4 %, 35 to 44 age group – 2.4%, 45 to 54 age group– 4.7%, 55 to 64 age group –6.9%, 65 to 74 age group — 7.8% and 75 and over – 6.3%.
Daily alcohol intake was the most frequent in Portugal, with a fifth (20.7%) of the population consuming alcohol every day, followed by Spain (13.0%) and Italy (12.1%. In contrast, the lowest share was around 1.0% in Latvia and Lithuania.
In the Netherlands, almost half of the population (47.3%) consumed alcohol on a weekly basis, closely followed by Luxembourg (43.1%) and Belgium (40.8%). Monthly consumption in the EU was the highest in Lithuania with 31.3 per cent, Latvia (31.1%) and Cyprus (30.4%).
Among the EU Member States, Croatia reported the highest share of the population (38.3%) who never consumed alcohol or had not consumed any in the last 12 months.
In all EU Member States, men consumed alcohol more frequently than women. The largest gender gaps were found in Portugal (33.4% vs. 9.7%) and Spain (20.2% vs. 6.1%) for daily consumption and in Romania (32.2% vs. 6.6%) and Slovakia (30.6% vs. 8.8%) for weekly consumption. However, proportions of monthly intake were fairly equal between sexes.
In all the European countries, women accounted for a significantly higher share of individuals that never consumed alcohol or had not consumed any in the last 12 months. The largest gender gap was found in Cyprus (12.8% men vs. 44.2% women), Bulgaria (16.2% vs. 42.0%) and Italy (21.5% vs. 46.7 %).
Heavy episodic drinking is defined as ingesting the equivalent of more than 60g of pure ethanol on a single occasion. Among the EU Member States, between 4% (Cyprus and Italy) and 38% (Denmark) of adults reported taking part in heavy drinking episodes at least once a month. Among these, the majority did so every month, while a smaller proportion (between 3 to 19 times smaller) engaged in the behaviour at least once a week.
