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Christmas is typically a boozy period but British people are drinking less alcohol than any time on record, a new study has shown.
UK adults consumed on average 10.2 alcoholic drinks a week last year, which is the lowest figure since 1990 when data collection began, according to research from company IWSR.
It is a decline of more than a quarter from the peak two decades ago, when the average UK adult had 14 alcoholic drinks a week, IWSR found from analysing the data behind the global beverage alcohol market.
Explaining what has driven the drop, IWSR president Marten Lodewijks told the Financial Times: “The population is ageing and older consumers physiologically can’t drink as much.”
He added: “There are also elements of health consciousness . . . and the cost of living is up so people just can’t afford to ‘drink out’ as much.”
Pub owners from across the UK told The Independent they fear this will be one of the most challenging festive seasons the industry has ever seen.
Figures from trade bodies reveal that one pub will have closed its doors every single day in 2025, with more than 400 having closed down in 2024.
The closures come amid a continued struggle in the years since the pandemic, alongside what many pub owners believe to be unhelpful financial measures brought in by successive governments.
Alastair Scoular took over his family pub The Steam Packet Inn on the Isle of Whithorn in 1995, but says he has never known the situation for pubs in rural Scotland to be “as tough as it is” right now.
“Usually Christmas in Scotland tends to be a lot busier around the new year, and we’d get quite a few parties in the run-up – but we’ve certainly not had the same number of bookings,” he told The Independent.
“We’re going to take what we can, but it won’t be a golden time that will help us get through the winter. I used to bank on a certain amount of income to get through January and February, but I’m not this year.”
The decline in levels of drinking comes as British people report going out less often, with money a key factor.
The Night Time Industries Association’s 2025 consumer research survey found that 61 per cent of respondents reported going out less in the past year, with only 16 per cent stating they go out more after 10pm.
68 per cent of young people said the current economic climate was to blame for this reduction, while 53 per cent reported spending less on going out compared with last year.
