New Annual Report: One in Ten Czech Adults Drink Alcohol Every Day

Almost one-tenth of adults in the Czech Republic, around 900,000 people, drink alcohol every day, and around 1.5 million drink hazardously.

A recent report on addictions, commissioned by the Czech government and published by the National Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Addictions, sheds light on the situation.

The report reveals that close to ten percent of adults over the age of 15 consume alcohol on a daily basis. Moreover, an estimated 1.5 to 1.7 million people fall into the risky drinking category.

One might assume that having a couple of beers in the evening would not pose a significant threat to one’s health.

However, for women, consuming an average of over 20 grams of ethanol per day – the equivalent of less than two small beers or three glasses of wine – is already considered risky.

Men, on the other hand, should not exceed 60 grams of ethanol. Furthermore, the act of consuming five or more drinks in a single sitting brings about additional risks. In this category, the Czech Republic ranks among the countries with the highest prevalence worldwide.

“Women are more likely to drink wine,” said Chomynova. “Drinking patterns among women are different. Women are more likely to drink alone. It starts with an innocent drink, a drink in the evening, and it turns into daytime drinking,” says Pavla Chomynova, head of the National Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Addictions.

The report states, “between 17 and 19 percent of the adult population, an estimated 1.5-1.7 million people in the Czech Republic, engage in risky alcohol consumption. Close to 900,000 of them fall into the harmful alcohol consumption category. Long-term harmful drinking is two to three times more prevalent among men.”

On average, a Czech citizen consumes approximately ten liters of pure alcohol per year.

Alcohol consumption is widely accepted in Czech society, with 90 percent of individuals considering regular drinking to be acceptable.

Each year, six to seven thousand deaths in the country are attributed to alcohol. Additionally, it contributes to over 200 diseases while increasing the risks of injuries, accidents, and poisoning.

The report adds, “individuals dependent on alcohol die, on average, 24 years earlier than the general population. Nearly 83 percent of them do not live past the economically active age of 64. External causes, such as accidental injury, suicide, liver disease, circulatory diseases, and malignant neoplasms, are the most common reasons for their premature demise.”

In terms of adolescent behavior, Czech youths also top the charts in terms of alcohol consumption within the European context, as indicated by international studies conducted by HBSC and ESPAD.

Over 40 percent of 13-year-olds in the country have experimented with alcohol, while a quarter of 15-year-olds report having been drunk at least twice in their lives. By the age of 16, a staggering 95 percent of respondents have already encountered alcohol.