Alcohol consumption goes down a fraction

Researchers divided on future trend

print this

In 2008, the aggregate alcohol consumption in Finland went down marginally compared with the year before.
      Last year the Finns consumed 10.4 litres of absolute alcohol per capita. This translates to a 0.1-litre reduction relative to 2007.
      If the consumption is divided evenly between those over the age of 15, the figure reads as 12.5 litres of pure alcohol per head.
      The information is from the Yearbook of Alcohol and Drug Statistics 2008 by the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).
     
However, analyst Marke Jääskeläinen would not draw the conclusion just yet that the consumption of alcoholic beverages would actually have taken a downward turn. “The consumption seems to have levelled off, but to be able to see the correct trend we have to wait for a couple of years”, Jääskeläinen says.
      So far the highest consumption peak has been in 2007.
      This time the only noticeable fall happened specifically in the consumption taken into account in the statistics, in other words the alcoholic beverages bought in Finland, either from retailers or in restaurants and bars. The difference here compared with 2007 was 1.8 per cent, which in Jääskeläinen’s words is “a decent decline”.
      The consumption that is “not taken into account in the statistics”, such as drinks brought back for instance from cruises to Estonia, in turn increased by no less than 4.3 per cent.
      The reduction of consumption is traditionally explained by the increases in tax on alcohol and the bleak economic times. But there may be other reasons as well, Jääskeläinen admits.
      Professor of Public Health Jussi Kauhanen from the University of Kuopio, for one, has predicted that drinking will decline in Finland just like it already has in France, Germany, Spain, and Denmark. In Kauhanen’s view the reasons are cultural and have to do with a change in attitudes.
     
Despite the slight decline, last year for the first time more alcohol was consumed in Finland than anywhere else in the Nordic Countries (See earlier article).
      The treatments of alcohol-related illnesses also declined by 2.4 per cent relative to 2007. Even so, such treatments continue to be eight per cent up from the time before the sizeable alcohol tax reduction that was introduced across the board in 2004.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finnish alcohol consumption tops list of Nordic countries (18.5.2009)

Links:
  THL: Alcohol and Drugs

Helsingin Sanomat