Worldwide alcohol consumption up by 10%
PARIS: The world consumed 10 per cent more alcohol an adult in 2017 than in 1990, thanks to heavier and more widespread drinking in China and India, researchers said yesterday.
On current trends, global consumption per capita will rise another 17 per cent over the next decade, they reported in The Lancet.
By 2030, half of all adults worldwide will drink alcohol, and almost a quarter will binge drink at least once a month, according to projections covering 189 countries.
"The world is not on track to achieve global targets to reduce harmful alcohol use," said the authors, calling for counter-measures such as higher taxes and a ban on advertising.
The World Health Organisation's (WHO) goal is to reduce "harmful alcohol use" by 10 per cent by 2025.
Alcohol is linked to over 200 diseases and accounts for more than three million deaths - 75 per cent of them men - each year, the WHO has said.
Globally, some 237 million men and 46 million women suffer from alcohol-related disorders, with the highest rates in Europe (15 per cent and 3.5 per cent, respectively, for men and women) and North America (11.5 per cent and 5 per cent).
"Before 1990, most alcohol was consumed in high-income countries, with the highest use levels recorded in Europe," said lead author Jakob Manthey, a researcher at the Institute of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy in Dresden, Germany.
"However, this pattern has changed substantially, with large reductions across Eastern Europe and vast increases in several middle-income countries such as China, India and Vietnam." - AFP
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