Table 1.
Comparative data on alcohol consumption, alcohol-related mortality, and estimated strictness of alcohol policies.
| DENMARK | FINLAND | ICELAND | NORWAY | SWEDEN | SCOTLAND | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alcohol consumption | ||||||
| Recorded alcohol consumption – liters of pure alcohola | 9.5 | 9.1 | 5.4 | 6.2 | 7.4 | 10.9b |
| Including estimates of unrecorded consumptionc | 11,4 | 12,3 | 7,1 | 7,7 | 9,2 | – |
| Heavy episodic drinkingc | ||||||
| Men | 37,8 | 51,8 | 32,9 | 17,4 | 33,2 | 35,5d |
| Women | 19,5 | 22,0 | 14,4 | 6,5 | 14,5 | 20,9d |
| Alcohol-related harmc | ||||||
| Liver cirrhosis | ||||||
| Men | 20,2 | 28,5 | 3,3 | 4,6 | 7,2 | 21 |
| Women | 8,9 | 10,0 | 0,8 | 2,6 | 3,0 | 11,0 |
| Alcohol control policies | ||||||
| The alcohol Policy indexe | 33 | 54 | 64 | 67 | 64 | 36d,f |
Notes:
Liters of sold pure alcohol per inhabitants aged 15 years and older in 2013. Source: Henriksson et al, 2015.
Liters of sold pure alcohol per inhabitants aged 16 years and older in Scotland, 2012. Copyright: Nielsen/CGA, 2013.
Source: WHO, Country profles, 2012.
Refers to the UK.
An indicator of the strength of a country’s alcohol control policies. The higher score the more restrictive policy.
Scotland has stricter alcohol policies in place than the rest of the UK, but was not examined in the index or classifcation scale. For example, Scottish licensing laws have am explicit public health objective (protecting and improving public health), there are restrictions on alcohol availability (trains/ferries, ban on multi-buy promotions) and Scotland has introduced a minimum unit pricing policy but it introduction has been delayed due to a challenge in the European Courts. In fact, the Scottish Alcohol Policy is more in line with the Nordic alcohol control policy approach than the UK policy, see http://www.alcohol-focus-scotland.org.uk/campaigns/scottish-policy/”.