Different drinking patterns in Europe

Leifman divided the EU-15 and Norway roughly into low (Nordic), medium (mid European), and high (Mediterranean) consumption countries. Drinking patterns crudely follow the same north-south gradient (Leifman, 2002b):

• Beverage preference: traditionally the mid-European countries are beer-drinking, the southern European countries are wine drinking and the northern European countries are former spirit-drinking countries (Noström, 2002). Nowadays beer is the dominant beverage in mid and North European countries, although wine consumption has also increased significantly in these countries.
• Drinking with meals: in southern Europe people are much more likely to drink with lunch than elsewhere (Anderson & Baumberg, 2006).
• Daily drinking: is more common in the south of the EU-15 than in the north (TNS Opinion & Social, 2007).
• Drinking levels: the percentage of people drinking at drinking level III (Rehm et al., 2004) appears to be the highest in central European countries (in both the east and west) (Anderson & Baumberg, 2006).
• Drinking to drunkenness: compared to other Europeans, fewer southern Europeans report getting drunk each month. Exceptions to this pattern are evident for ‘binge drinking’, the more objective measure for drunkenness. For example Sweden has one of the lowest rates of binge-drinking in the EU-15 (Anderson & Baumberg, 2006).

Although drinking patterns in European countries have been harmonizing over the last decades, there are still cultural differences to be observed, even within countries.