Fact: the Brits love their tea. According to the UK Tea & Infusions Association, the people in the UK gulp an average of 100 million cups of their Earl Greys daily. That’s about 36 billion each year.
Now compare that to no more than 100 million cups of coffee every day. But the Brits’ love for drinking goes beyond chai and chamomile. It also extends to alcohol, hence, the popularity of the pubs.
How Much Alcohol Do the Brits Drink?
Project Britain puts the number of pubs in the UK at more than 55,000. Some of these have been around for decades they are popular not only for their beers but also for their history.
It’s, therefore, safe to say that the people in the UK also like some ale and even wine. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that 29% of the males said they drink binge in a single session. It means they consume at least four pints of beer in a single sitting. The women, on the other hand, are more likely to appreciate a wine delivery gift. They prefer it over beer, and they can drink two full glasses of it when on a binge.
Many of the Brits drink, but some regions tend to do it more than the others. In 2016, ONS revealed that most of the heavy drinkers were in south-west England. In a survey, more than 70% of them said they drank alcohol the previous week before they were questioned.
Coming in second place were the South Easterners with about 65% of them getting drunk the past 7 days. The Londoners were the least likely to drink, although nearly 50% of the respondents said they dined on alcohol during the same period.
The rankings then changed once they reported on the bingers during their heaviest drinking day. The North Easterners were the most likely to binge followed by the residents in Scotland and North West.
Although you can see Brits hanging around bars and pubs for hours, they tend to drink booze on Saturdays between 8:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. There’s also a growing shift on where they do it. It turns out more people prefer to hang out at home with their favorite alcohol in hand.
Why Do Brits Love to Drink?
No question: regular and heavy consumption of alcohol impacts health. It is one of the leading risk factors for liver cancer, for example. But why do Brits still do it anyway? It’s all about culture. The country’s relationship with alcohol has been around for many years since the 1800s. In fact, it was so ingrained in people’s lifestyle the tax depended on how much alcohol the drink contained.
During the Industrial Revolution, the men in the factories headed to the pubs and bars before going home not only to drink but to rehydrate themselves after long hours of work. Like today, these places had become venues for socialization. Most of all, if the European study is right, beers can make people happy. Who doesn’t want it?
