Festive spirits bubble while year-round drinking drops in France
Excessive intake of wine, beer and champagne may define Christmas and New Year celebrations across France, but a report by the country's leading addiction monitoring agency shows that alcohol consumption is declining for the rest of the year.
The French Observatory for Drugs and Addictive Tendencies (OFDT), which tracks substance use and addiction trends nationwide, revealed that 600 million litres of pure alcohol were sold in 2023 – a 3.8 percent drop compared with the previous year.
On average, each person over the age of 15 consumed 10.35 litres of pure alcohol during the year, down from 10.76 litres in 2022.
Despite the decline in alcohol consumption, the number of alcohol-related hospitalisations has increased.
In 2023, 307,676 people spent a total of 595,326 days in hospital, compared to nearly 301,000 people and 573,000 days in 2021, the report said.
Wine most popular
The survey says though there were fewer sales of wine, it still accounts for 52 percent of alcoholic beverages sold in France.
The wine industry also has a significant economic footprint, with a turnover of 24.8 billion euros and more than 50,000 employees.
By contrast, the brewing industry employs 5,400 people with a turnover of 1.6 billion euros, while the champagne and spirits sectors provide 18,000 jobs and contribute a combined turnover of 20 billion euros.
That combined muscle has come under fire from public health campaigners who say the alcohol industry is a powerful lobby that exerts too much influence over the government.
One positive finding in the report is a reduction in alcohol-related road deaths.
Read more on RFI English
Read also:
Binge drinking still a worry in France despite drop in daily consumption
Podcast: France's alcohol dilemma, gender-neutral toys and the day secularism became law
Cheers! this year's Beaujolais Nouveau has arrived
