Despite low alcohol consumption overall, adolescent binge drinking is a major public health concern
In 2019, Danes consumed on average 9.5 litres of alcohol per person aged 15 and over – more than their Nordic peers (6.1-8.2 litres) but less than the EU average (9.9 litres). Overall, consumption has decreased by about 25 % since 2000, but has stabilised in recent years.

 

In 2017 every Dane aged 15 years or more bought on average 9,1 litres of pure (100%) alcohol.

Limited progress has been achieved in tackling excessive alcohol consumption among adolescents, however. In 2018, 42 % of 15-year-olds reported that they had been drunk more than once in their life – the highest proportion among all EU countries. Danish adolescents were also the most likely to report having been drunk in the past 30 days – around one third of 15-year-old boys and girls reported this – with no improvement observed since 2014. (Source: Denmark - Country Health Profile 2021)

The consumption figures were only calculated from 2000-2010 after that only sales data is available. Data on cross-border trade came from The Danish Ministry of Taxation but is no longer included in the statistics.

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​83% of adult Danes (aged 16 and up) have drunk alcohol within the past year. This is a small decrease from 2013, when the figure was 88%. There are proportionally more men (91%) than women (84%) who have drunk alcohol within the past year.

 

Youth drinking

Although Danish adolescents generally drink less than 20 years ago, in recent years there have been increases in both the share of 15-year-olds who have tried alcohol (Tolstrup et al., 2019) and alcohol-related hospitalisations among young people (Danish Health Data Authority, 2020).

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A report in 2018 by the Danish Cancer Society and TrygFonden charities showed that Danes between the ages of 15 and 25 drink less than in previous years. Four out of five people in that age range do not get drunk each weekend. The percentage of young people who get drunk every weekend has fallen from 27 per cent in 2014 to 12 per cent in 2017, according to the report produced by the two organisations.

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The survey, carried out by Epinion on behalf of the two charities, is based on data collected from 1,000 people between the ages of 15 and 25. (Source: The Local)

 

According to the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016, Denmark had the highest proportion of drinkers (97.1 per cent of men and 95.3 per cent of women).

 

That is contradicting though with WHO´s Global status report on alcohol and health which claims for instance that 10.7% of Danes are lifetime abstainers and 35.8% of women haven´t drunk alcohol the last 12 months.