Three out of four students aged 14-18 admit to having drunk alcohol at least once in the last year and more than half of them report recent consumption (in the last month).
The Ministry of Health has published the report Alcohol Monograph 2024, which provides an overview of alcohol consumption in the general population as well as in students and other more vulnerable populations.
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30% of 12 and 13-year-olds admit to having consumed alcohol at least once in the last year
It includes the consequences of alcohol consumption, highlighting the need for treatment to control alcohol dependence, hospital emergency care related to alcohol consumption and an estimate of mortality attributable to alcohol consumption.
The publication of this monograph marks a milestone. It was first published in 2021 and is now in its second edition, updating and expanding the data. It is promoted and financed within the National Plan on Drugs, with the collaboration of the autonomous communities and cities.
In Spain, alcohol is the most widely consumed psychoactive substance in the general population at all ages. In general terms, its consumption is more frequent among men than among women and decreases with increasing age (except among young people, where the opposite is true).
Students aged 14-18
In Spain, three out of four students aged 14-18 admit to having drunk alcohol at least once in the last year, and more than half of them report recent alcohol consumption (in the last month). In this age group, alcohol consumption is somewhat more frequent among girls than among boys, with a gap that has been widening in recent years. For both sexes, the prevalence of drinking increases with age, from 36.5% among 14-year-old students to 73.8% at the age of 18.
In addition to the extent of drinking, patterns that indicate higher risk, such as self-reported binge drinking and binge drinking, are of concern. These episodes are associated with binge drinking and occur frequently in both boys and girls. In the last month, 19.7% of students aged 14-18 years reported binge drinking, 20.8% reported binge drinking and 28.2% reported binge drinking. This heavy drinking poses an added risk, both to health and to the development of other risky behaviours, such as driving or travelling in a vehicle driven under the influence of alcohol, getting into fights, or having unprotected sex.
This high prevalence of alcohol consumption among young people is associated with a low-risk perception on their part. Another factor favouring alcohol consumption among young people is the ease of obtaining alcoholic beverages: 92.9% of them do not perceive any difficulty in obtaining alcoholic beverages although their sale to minors is prohibited.
However, the data show that the frequency of alcohol consumption among adolescents has been decreasing since 2012 and this should reinforce efforts to reduce consumption in this population group.
School students aged 12 and 13
Among students aged 12 and 13 years old, in the 1st and 2nd years of ESO, 34.6% recognise having consumed alcohol at some time in their lives; 30.6% recognise some consumption in the last year; and 21.5% of consumption in the last month. These prevalences are very similar in both sexes. Even in these age groups, there are cases of intensive consumption: referring to the last year, 8.3% of 12 and 13-year-old students admit to having gone binge drinking and 5.8% have been drunk. These data show the persistence of alcohol consumption and the ease of access at very early ages.
General population aged 15-64
In the general population aged 15 to 64, alcohol consumption is widespread: 93.2% of them report having consumed alcoholic beverages at some time in their lives; 76.4% at some time in the last year; and 64.5% in the last month. Some 9.0% of people aged 15-64 acknowledge daily alcohol consumption in the last month, with a decreasing trend in the time series of the EDADES survey, which spans three decades.
About socio-demographic factors, in the general population aged 15 to 64 years, alcohol consumption is more frequent in men than in women, decreases from the age of 25 to 34 years, and increases with educational level. Conversely, daily consumption is more frequent with increasing age.
As patterns of particular risk in the general population aged 15-64 years, in 2022, 16.7% binge drinking in the last year and 6.4% in the last month, as well as 15.4% binge drinking, were recorded. These heavy drinking patterns are more frequent among men and the younger the age. 1.6% of women reported having consumed alcohol during pregnancy.
Metabolite analysis in wastewater
The results of this pioneering analysis in some cities suggest that the overall weekly median ethanol consumption is between 8.8 l/day/1,000 inhabitants. In the 2018 study, the median was 10 l/day/1,000 population, suggesting some decrease in consumption (although it should be noted that the populations studied in 2018 and 2021 are not identical and that in 2021 there were still restrictions linked to the COVID-19 pandemic).
Inland Revenue consumption (sales) data
These data include sales to tourists and non-residents. They show a general upward trend in alcoholic beverage sales since 2015, with 5,764 million litres sold in 2022. Alcohol tax revenues also reached the highest values in the historical series studied in 2022. The percentage of pure alcohol in each type of beverage has remained stable. Beer is the beverage with the greatest weight in total sales volume (70.4% of the total in 2022), and it is also the one that contributes the greatest amount of pure alcohol per capita, followed by wine and, at some distance, by derived beverages.
Risky alcohol consumption
Using the AUDIT scale included in the surveys, it can be seen that 6.0% of the Spanish population aged 15-64 years could have a risky consumption of alcohol in 2022. If risk drinking is assessed based on average consumption, 3.9% of the population aged 15-64 years would have engaged in risk drinking. In general, hazardous drinking is more frequent in men and among younger people.
Consequences of alcohol consumption
In 2021, alcohol was responsible for 36.2% of admissions to treatment for substance abuse in the addiction care network in our country, with a total of 25,140 admissions (the first substance that leads people to seek specialised professional help, ahead of cocaine, heroin or cannabis). Of these, almost 3 out of 4 were men. In addition, alcohol was present, together with other psychoactive substances, in 41.4% of hospital emergency episodes related to substance use, affecting mostly young people (under 25 years of age).
Estimates of alcohol-attributable mortality (AAD) in Spain have recently been updated, including data up to 2021. An estimated 13,887 alcohol-attributable deaths occurred in Spain in 2021, the vast majority due to cancer or digestive diseases. They are much more frequent in men than in women, and are concentrated in high-risk drinkers. The population risk in 2021, as measured by the average annual age-standardised MAA rate, was 32.9/100,000 person-years, a significant decrease from 2001-2004 (-34.7%). The population risk was higher in men than in women and increased considerably with age from 35 to 44 years of age. Of all deaths in Spain, 3.3% were attributable to alcohol (4.5% of deaths in men and 1.6% in women). Although its impact has declined, alcohol still carries a significant burden of disease and death in our society.