Consumption of alcohol worldwide will rise by 17% over next 10 years: Reports

Guwahati: The world consumed ten per cent more alcohol per adult in 2017 than in 1990, due in large part to heavier and more widespread drinking in China and India, researchers said Wednesday.

On current trends, global consumption per capita will rise another 17 per cent over the next decade, they reported in The Lancet.

By 2030 half of all adults worldwide will drink alcohol, and almost a quarter will binge drink at least once a month, according to projections covering 189 countries.

The World Health Organization (WHO) goal is to reduce "harmful alcohol use" 10 per cent by 2025.

In India, meanwhile, a far smaller percentage of the population -- 40 and 22 per cent of men and women, respectively -- drank at all in 2017, on average less than six litres of pure alcohol.

But that was double the figure for 1990, and the researchers forsee an additional 50 per cent increase by 2030.

Globally, alcohol intake went up from 5.9 litres of pure alcohol per adult in 1990 to 6.5 litres in 1997, and is projected to jump to 7.6 litres in 2030. Worldwide, 45 per cent of recorded booze consumption is in the form of spirits such as grain alcohol. Another 15 per cent is beer, and 12 per cent is wine.

More than a quarter of alcohol-related deaths in 2016 were due to accidents, violence and self-harm; a fifth due to digestive problems; and a fifth to heart-and-artery disease.