Nearly a quarter now teetotal, study reveals
NEW research reveals how people are turning their backs on alcohol, with Wales home to a higher share of teetotallers than Scotland or England.
Twenty-three per cent of Welsh adults do not touch alcohol, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
It found that last year Wales had a higher share of teetotallers than Scotland (21%) or England (20%)
Half (50%) of people in Wales said they drank alcohol in the past week, compared with 53% in Scotland nearly six out of 10 (58%) in England.
Across Britain, more and more people are embracing teetotalism.
Non-drinkers made up just 19% of the 16-24 age group in 2005, but by last year this had climbed to 22.8%. Overall, people in this age bracket were less likely to drink than any other. The research shows that
higher-paid people in managerial and professional positions are more likely to drink regularly.
Nearly four in five (78.9%) of those earning £40,000 said they drank alcohol in the previous week. This was true for almost seven out of 10 (69.5%) people in managerial and professional jobs, compared with 51.2% of routine and manual workers.
The findings have been published as minimum pricing for alcohol comes into force in Scotland. A two-litre bottle of strong cider will now cost a minimum of £7.50, and the price of own-brand whisky, vodka and gin will go up by up to £3 a bottle.
A Bill to introduce minimum pricing in Wales is working its way through the Assembly and could be in force by summer next year.
The only part of the population in Great Britain for whom not drinking has become less popular is the 65-plus age group, where the share of teetotallers has fallen from 29.4% in 2005 to 24.2% in 2017.
According to the ONS, this is largely explained due to changes in the drinking habits of older women. It states: “Of women aged 65 years and over, 37.2% reported not drinking at all in 2005; in 2017, this figure was just 27.9%.”
Marc Thomas, 30, who runs Cardiffbased polling company Doopoll, has never felt pressure to drink. He said: “I haven’t ever drunk. It wasn’t really a conscious choice to not drink – it’s just that I wasn’t really in environments where people were drinking when I was growing up.
“My wife also doesn’t drink – so that probably helps. I haven’t ever really found it a limiting factor socially except when it’s my turn to buy a round of drinks at the bar and everyone refuses to let me because they’ve just bought me soda and lime all evening.
“There’s also a lot of upsides to this: I don’t get hungover, my weight doesn’t fluctuate and I don’t feel like the living dead at my desk on a Monday morning.”
Carwyn Tywyn, a 43-year-old harpist and dad-of-two from Burry Port, quit drinking just over three years ago and now participates in Club Soda, an organisation which helps people take control of their alcohol intake.
He said: “I came to a decision very suddenly just over three years ago. I’d been made redundant, actually, and was in a position where I wanted to focus on the practical things that I had to deal with.”
Mr Tywyn said it was “one-off occasions” when he would “tend to come a cropper, start singing or crying – one or the other”.
A key factor why people find it difficult to ditch drinking, he said, is social pressure.
“It’s a huge barrier for people... There does seem to be that social stigma and it’s quite a sad reflection that people have to go through these emotional hoops before taking that decision.
“That’s why groups like Club Soda are excellent because you’ve got a support group there... But it’s a sad indictment that people have to worry – or feel that they have to worry – about what their friends will think.”
Saleem Kidwai, of the Muslim Council for Wales, is a teetotaller and has grown used to declining alcohol at business dinners. He now finds there are likely to be other people at a table who are not drinking and considers the growth of coffee shops as an alternative to pubs as a “very positive sign”.
He said: “In my time there never used to be so many gyms and so much health consciousness... Times are changing.”
Andrew Misell, of Alcohol Concern Cymru, said it was “great” that more people had the confidence not to drink.
He said: “These new figures do suggest that quite a lot of people in Wales are avoiding alcohol, or only drinking it occasionally. We don’t particularly advocate giving up alcohol altogether, but if that’s what people want or need to do, it’s great to see that more people have the confidence to do that.”
But he acknowledged the pressure people can come under to buy booze.
He said: “A lot of us will have felt that pressure from friends or colleagues from time to time. There’s also a year-round push from the drinks industry – producers and supermarkets – to make every big occasion a drinking occasion.”