Males top alcohol consumption

Males in managerial and professional jobs are consuming the most alcohol each week, government statistics have revealed.

The 2006 general household survey found that men are drinking twice as much alcohol as women.

Men were more likely to drink on more days of the week than women and more than one in five men compared to one in ten women had drunk on at least five of the previous seven days.

Both men and women in households classified as ‘routine and manual’ drank less on average (11.6 units a week) than those in other types of households; people in ‘managerial and professional’ households drank the most with an average of 15.1 units per week.

Alcohol consumption was also found to be about two units per week higher in England and Wales than in Scotland.

The 2006 survey used an updated method for calculating alcohol consumption, making comparisons with previous years less possible.

“However, estimates from the last ten years using the ‘old’ methodology suggest that the trend in alcohol consumption may be downward,” a statement from the Office for National Statistics read.

The proportion of men drinking more than 21 units a week on average fell from 29 per cent in 2000 to 23 per cent in 2006.

There was also a fall in the proportion of women drinking more than 14 units a week from 17 per cent in 2000 to 12 per cent in 2006.