Statistics on Alcohol - England, 2014; Additional Tables

In England (unless otherwise specified):

Drinking behaviour among adults and children

• Between 2005 and 2012 the proportion of men who drank alcohol in the week before being interviewed fell from 72 per cent to 64 per cent, and the proportion of women fell from 57 per cent to 52 per cent in Great Britain.
• Among adults who had drunk alcohol in the last week, 55 per cent of men and 53 per cent of women drank more than the recommended daily amounts, including 31 per cent of men and 24 per cent of women who drank more than twice the recommended amounts in 2012.
• In real terms, between 2009 and 2012 household spending on alcoholic drinks in the UK increased by 1.3 per cent, whilst that bought for consumption outside the home fell by 9.8 per cent.
• In 2012, 43 per cent of school pupils (aged 11-15) said that they had drunk alcohol at least once. This continues the downward trend since 2003, when 61 per cent of pupils had drunk alcohol.

Drinking related costs, ill health and mortality

Following a public consultation, the methodology to calculate alcohol related admissions to hospital has been revised. In addition to revising the alcohol attributable fractions, the previous measure based on primary diagnoses only has been amended to now also include alcohol related external causes recorded in secondary diagnosis fields. These data are not comparable to previously published data. A time series based on the revised methodology is expected to be published by the HSCIC in June 2014.

• In 2012-13, there were an estimated 1,008,850 admissions related to alcohol consumption where an alcohol-related disease, injury or condition was the primary reason for hospital admission or a secondary diagnosis. Of the estimated 1,008,850 alcohol related admissions:
  • 65 per cent (651,010) were due to conditions which were categorised as partly attributable chronic conditions
  • 6 per cent (60,830) were for conditions categorised as partly attributable acute conditions
  • males were more likely to be admitted to hospital with alcohol related diseases, injuries and conditions than females, with 65 per cent of the overall admissions being male patients
  • however amongst under 16s, the opposite is true where females were more likely to be admitted to hospital with alcohol related diseases, injuries and conditions than males, with females accounting for 55 per cent of all admissions
  • there were 1,890 alcohol-related hospital admissions per 100,000 population in England
  • the rate of alcohol-related admissions varied regionally from an estimated 2,500 per 100,000 population in North East Region to 1,500 admissions per 100,000 population in South East Region. All rates, to allow meaningful comparisons, are age and gender standardised
• In 2012-13, there were an estimated 325,870 admissions where the primary diagnosis or external causes recorded in secondary diagnosis fields were attributable to the consumption of alcohol.
• In 2013, 183,810 items were prescribed (in a primary care setting or NHS hospital) for the treatment of alcohol dependency and dispensed in the community. The Net Ingredient Cost (NIC) of these prescription items in 2013 was £3.13 million, which is an increase of £0.2 million since 2012 and just over double the NIC in 2004 of £1.51 million.
• In 2012, there were 6,490 alcohol-related deaths. This is a 19 per cent increase from 2001 (5,476) but a 4 per cent decrease from 2011 (6,771).