Number of heavy drinkers has remained unchanged since 2014

Eight percent of adults in the Netherlands were heavy drinkers last year, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported. That percentage hasn’t decreased since 2014.

CBS considers a heavy drinker to be a woman who drinks four or more glasses of alcohol on one day at least once a week and a man who drinks six or more glasses. In the prevention agreement, the government and various social organizations agreed to reduce the number of heavy drinkers to 5 percent or less by 2040.

Nearly 80 percent of Netherlands residents aged 18 or older consumed alcohol in the year before answering CBS’s questions for the 2022 survey. Ten percent said they’d like to drink less. The other 90 percent don’t have a problem with their alcohol consumption (29 percent) or say they already drink very little (61 percent).

CBS found that the more people drink, the more often they want to cut down. Of those who drink 1 to 7 glasses a week, 6 percent said they want to drink less. Of those who drink 14 glasses of alcohol or more a week, 36 percent wanted to drink less.

Three-quarters of those who drink alcohol do so because they enjoy it. Ten percent said they drink alcohol because it loosens them up at social gatherings.

Over 40 percent of people who don’t drink alcohol avoid it because they don’t like it. About 25 percent said they don’t drink because it is unhealthy.