Bulgaria has among EU’s lowest rates of heavy episodic drinking – Eurostat
Twelve per cent of Bulgarians engaged in heavy episodic drinking at least once a month in 2019, among the lowest rates in the European Union, according to figures released on August 6 by EU statistics agency Eurostat.
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 four per cent (Cyprus and Italy) and 38 per cent (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 three to 19 times smaller) engaged in the behaviour at least once a week.
In 2019, 8.4 per cent of the EU adult population consumed alcohol daily, 28.8 per cent weekly, 22.8 per cent monthly and 26.2 per cent never consumed or had not consumed any in the last 12 months, according to Eurostat.
Daily consumption of alcohol was found to increase with age. The lowest share of those who consumed alcohol the most frequently (that is, every day) was recorded among those aged 15 to 24 (one per cent) while the highest share in people of 75 or over (16 per cent). 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 per cent).
Weekly alcohol consumption was fairly stable across all age groups between 25 and 64, the highest share being found among people aged 45 to 54 (33.5 per cent).
Monthly and less than once a month consumption slightly decreased with age. People aged between 25 and 34 recorded the highest share that consumed alcohol monthly (28.5 per cent), Eurostat said.
(Photo: Tomasz Mazurkiewicz)
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