A study shows that the French continue to drink less alcohol

Whether it is wine, beer or spirits, the French's disenchantment continues. There are fewer and fewer people drinking daily, monthly or occasionally, as shown by the annual report from the French Observatory of Drugs and Addictive Tendencies (OFDT), published on November 27. Over the last three years, daily alcohol consumption has fallen by 13% among French people aged 18 to 75. 7% of adults now drink every day.

Four out of five said they had consumed it at least once a year (82.5%), which represents a more stable figure. Men are predominantly represented, whatever the pace of consumption. For example, in 2023, 10.4% of men said they consumed alcohol daily, compared to 3.8% of women.

Consumption falls, hospitalizations increase

Another major fact: almost one in five adolescents (19.4%) said they had never consumed alcohol in their life, a proportion tripled in twenty years. The quantity consumed, as much as the frequency of consumption, is indeed in decline. This is the case with IPAs (significant occasional alcoholic drinks, i.e. at least 5 standard drinks on the same occasion), more commonly called “binge drinking”. Between 2017 and 2022, we observe a drop of 17% among adolescents who engage in this type of practice based on priority research into the effects of alcohol. On the other hand, the oldest age group taken into account in this annual report (65-75 years) outranks all others in the level of alcohol consumed, whatever the periodicity (annual, monthly, etc.), the expected API exception.

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Can we still stop the decline in wine consumption?

Mirroring consumer trends, wine is seeing a decrease in the quantities put on sale (-4.2% between 2022 and 2023). Even if it continues to represent the majority of alcohol sold in 2023, beers (-2.6%) and spirits (-3.9%) suffer a less acute fall. Finally, if the French drink less alcohol, the number of hospital stays linked to alcohol dependence increases (+4.1% between 2022 and 2023).