Rich women and uneducated men drink most alcohol

Source: The Spirits Business

by Melita Kiely

14th May, 2015

Well-educated, wealthy women and poor, uneducated men are more likely to engage in hazardous drinking, according to a new report.

The Tackling Harmful Alcohol Use study by the Organisation of Economic co-operation and Development (OECD), an international firm that studies global trends, looked into the patterns and social differences of alcohol consumption.

Hazardous habits such as binge drinking were found to be most common in rich women in Australia, Canada, England, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Spain, Switzerland and the US.

The study concluded that across both men and women those who are “better educated” and of “higher socioeconomic status” drink more alcohol than anyone else.

However, the gap between men and women’s drinking behaviours appears to narrowing with both genders displaying similar drinking habits.

“No single variable predicts the likelihood that a person will adopt a given pattern of consuming alcohol,” the study stated. “People with more education and higher socioeconomic status are more likely to drink alcohol, but social gradients differ in men and women for hazardous and heavy episodic drinking.

“Men who are less educated and have higher socioeconomic status, and women who are more educated and have higher socioeconomic status, are more likely to drink at risk in many countries.”

Furthermore, the study found heavy drinking resulted in higher unemployment rates, while moderate drinking was linked to “improved labour outcomes”, although the author of the study, Marion Devaux, noted this has been disputed by some “due to the potential for selection”.