Overall alcohol consumption in the European Union has dropped 13% since 1980, according to a study released by the European Commission and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on December 7.
The study, entitled Health at a Glance: Europe 2010, found that people living in traditional wineproducing countries (France, Spain and Italy) as well as Greece, Germany and the Slovak Republic, are drinking substantially less wine.
The French are drinking 35% less alcohol per year compared with consumption levels in 1980, while the Spanish are drinking 36% less and Italians are drinking 50% less.
Although alcohol consumption on the whole has decreased, this is not uniform across EU - the Finnish and the Irish are drinking roughly 30% more alcohol per year during the same time frame, and Brits have increased their annual alcohol intake by roughly 15%, but from a lower base – ie the French and Spanish were consuming more per capita than the British or Irish in 1980. European adults consume an average of 11 litres (3
gallons) of alcohol per year, while French, Estonians and Hungarians were the heaviest continental
drinkers, consuming more than 12.5 (3.3 gallons) litres annually per adult.