Young British citizens sober up when it comes to drinking

LONDON — Teetotalism has become a major force in British life for the first time since the temperance movement after a dramatic rise in the number of young people shunning alcohol.

The number of under-25s opting for total abstinence from drink has leaped by 40 per cent in eight years, meaning young people have overtaken the elderly as the most sober generation.

Figures published by the Office for National Statistics show more than a quarter of young people do not drink alcohol at all. Binge drinking is also in decline. In London, the youngest and most ethnically diverse region of the U.K., one in three people is teetotal.

Once closely associated with 19th-century nonconformist Christian groups such as Methodists and the Salvation Army, the rise in abstinence has coincided with the growth of Britain’s Muslim community. However, Islam probably accounts for only a small part of the phenomenon amid a wider shift in attitudes.

Studies have suggested the generation that came of age in the era of austerity and university tuition fees holds more conservative views on drinking, smoking, gambling and sex than their predecessors. Binge drinking, measured as the number of people who had a heavy drinking session in the week before the annual ONS General Household Survey, fell by almost 17 per cent across the wider population between 2005 and 2013.

Among young people it dropped by a third. Only one in 50 men under 25 now drinks on an almost daily basis, compared with one in 10 a decade ago.