Thread by @VictimOfMaths

All this talk of trends in alcohol consumption have reminded me that I hadn't looked at the latest UK consumption figures from the British Beer and Pub Association (@beerandpub). So here we go.

UK alcohol consumption 2000-2017:

THREAD/

Alcohol consumption peaked in 2004, following a rise that started in the late 1940s. It subsequently fell until 2013, since when it has been very slowly rising again (+3.2% between 2013-17).

If we look at the contribution of different types of alcohol to this trend, we can see that the peak and subsequent fall came about as beer consumption started falling in 2004, while wine consumption stopped increasing around the same time. Recent rises are more spirits-driven.

If we look at consumption by channel (on-trade=pubs, bars & restaurants, off-trade=shops), drinking in pubs fell between 2002-2014 and has since plateaued, while drinking at home has increased in the last few years for the first time in a decade.

Beer has always been the nation's drink of choice in the pub, and the fall in on-trade drinking is almost entirely driven by a halving in per capita on-trade beer consumption in between 2000 and 2017, while consumption of other products in pubs has changed very little.

In contrast, the largest proportion of off-trade alcohol is consumed as wine. There is some suggestion that the slight increase in consumption since 2013 is being driven largely by spirits, perhaps the impact of the gin boom, and to a lesser extent beer and RTDs (alcopops)

Here's another way of looking at the on-/off-trade differences by beverage type. We now drink more beer at home than in the pub, for the first time. The fact that consumption of cider fell between 2009 and 2016 is also a bit surprising (to me at least).

And here, in its full glory is the time series going all the way back to 2000.

Yes, Victorians liked to drink. A lot.

BONUS CHART:

Implied average ABV for beer, cider and wine.

Beer ABVs have started to fall back to 1990s levels (when people still actually drank mild), while wine strengths rose by more than 1.5 percentage points between 1990 and 2010, although they've fallen back slightly.

(obviously that penultimate chart is the time series going back to 1900, not 2000, oops)