Information about alcohol consumption is collected as part of the General Household Survey (GHS), including average weekly alcohol consumption.
The following table gives the average weekly consumption for the last 15 years, broken down by gender. It should be noted that information on average weekly alcohol consumption is not collected every year.
Men Women Unweighted 1994 15.4 5.4 1996 16.0 6.3 1998 16.4 6.4 Weighted 1998 17.1 6.5 2000 17.4 7.1 2001 17.2 7.5 2002 17.2 7.6 20051 15.8 6.5 20062,3 14.8 6.2 20062,4 18.7 9.0 1 2005 data include last quarter of 2004-05 data due to survey change from financial year to calendar year. 2 Results for 2006 include longitudinal data. 3 Original method. 4 Improved method. Notes: 1. Weighting is a process in which GHS results are adjusted for non-response and to account for differences between the distribution of persons by age and gender; and region in the sample when compared to the population of Great Britain. Weighting is an improvement to the methodology from 1998; however, weighted data are not available before 1998, so cannot be supplied. Source: General Household Survey 2006: Smoking and drinking among adults 2006.
An improved method to calculate alcohol consumption was introduced in 2006, this was done to reflect increases in wine glass size, the increased alcoholic strength of wine and better estimates of the alcoholic strengths of beers, lagers and ciders. This is likely to mean that data for the years before 2006 understate consumption levels.