Canadians 22 and Under Drinking Less Than Older Generations, Data Suggests

Bottles of British Columbia wine on display at a liquor store in Cremona, Alta., on Feb. 7, 2018. The Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh

Young Canadians are less likely to pick up an alcoholic drink on a weekly basis than their older counterparts, new data from Statistics Canada suggests.

The survey on recent alcohol consumption found that 67.1 percent of those aged 18 to 22 had not had a drink in the past seven days, compared to 54.4 percent of Canadians overall.

The younger demographic also exhibited fewer instances of high-risk drinking which tended to be greatest among older Canadians.

Drinking By Age and Gender

Those aged 18 to 22 were by far the lightest drinkers, even beating out Canadian seniors. Those 65 and older were second on the no-drinking scale, with 56.9 percent reporting they had not consumed any alcohol in the past week.

The 23-to-34 age category was third at 55.3 percent, followed by 35 to 44-year-olds at 51.9 percent. The two remaining groups, 45 to 54 and 55 to 64, tied at 50.7 percent being booze-free over the past week.

High risk drinking—having seven or more drinks in a given week—was most prevalent among  55 to 64-year-olds, with 17.4 percent consuming at least seven alcoholic beverages. Those aged 45 to 54 had the second-highest rate at 16.6 percent followed by the 65-plus category at 15.4 percent. Canadians in the 35 to 44 age group came in at 15.1 percent, followed by the 23 to 34-year-olds at 14.2 percent.

Only 8.4 percent of 18- to-22-year-olds reported consumption of seven or more alcoholic beverages in the previous week—nearly half of the overall 15.1 percent average.

Overall, in the seven days preceding the survey, 15.2 percent of Canadians reported drinking one to two standard alcoholic drinks, 15.2 percent reported drinking three to six drinks and 15.1 percent reported drinking seven or more drinks.

Women were also more likely to abstain from drinking than men, the survey found. Nearly 60 percent of women reported no consumption of alcohol in the previous week, compared to just shy of 50 percent for men. While 58.8 percent of women had no booze, 11.1 percent consumed seven or more drinks. For men, 49.9 percent had drunk no alcohol compared to 19.3 percent who had at least seven boozy beverages.

Drinking By Province

Quebec recorded the smallest proportion (47 percent) of individuals who reported not consuming any alcoholic beverages in the past week. It also had the highest rate of individuals who reported consuming seven or more alcoholic beverages in the preceding week—18 percent compared to the national average of 15 percent.

On the other end of the spectrum was New Brunswick, where 60.2 percent went without drinking for a week and only 12.7 percent had seven or more drinks in seven days.

Saskatchewan respondents were also more likely to abstain from drinking with 58.8 percent not consuming alcohol during the week of the survey and just 12.5 percent of those drinking seven or more drinks.

More than half of those polled in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, and Manitoba had no drinks at all at 58.1 percent, 57.6 percent and 57.4 percent respectively. The three provinces were also similar in the number of people consuming seven or more drinks at 14 percent in Ontario, 14.1 percent in Manitoba, and 14.2 percent in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Nova Scotia (56.6 percent), Alberta (56.5 percent), and PEI (55.6 percent) also had similar rates of non-drinkers the week of the survey but Alberta was the lowest of the three for high-risk drinking. A total of 13.8 percent of those polled in the prairie province said they drank at least seven alcoholic beverages over the course of a week compared to 14.4 percent in PEI and 15.2 percent in Nova Scotia.

In B.C., 53.3 percent abstained and 15.9 percent had at least seven drinks.

The percentage of individuals consuming seven or more alcoholic beverages was also greater in rural regions, standing at 19 percent, in contrast to 14 percent among those residing in urban areas. However, the survey found that 59 percent of those in rural areas did not consume any drinks that week, compared to 56 percent of people in urban areas.

Occupation and Salary

The report did not delve into the underlying causes of alcohol consumption, but the data showed a link between higher salaries and elevated alcohol use.

Those in the highest income household bracket were more likely to drink excessively and least likely to abstain from alcohol than those in lower income households, the report found.

Forty-two percent of the highest-paid households did not drink at all during the seven day-period compared to 67 percent for the lowest earners. Nearly 22 percent of the higher earners had at least seven drinks during the week compared to 10.7 percent for the smallest income bracket.

The survey also found that high-risk drinking was linked to certain occupations. Twenty-three percent of people working in trades, transport and equipment operation, and 22 percent of people working in arts, culture, recreation and sports, reported drinking seven or more drinks in the past seven days, both of which were well above the Canadian average of 15 percent.