Assuming reality has anything to do with it, those screaming headlines about young people and their binge drinking should swiftly become a thing of the past. Research and statistics from every angle are revealing a new generation that’s gone off the booze and in the UK is driving the second-largest fall in alcohol consumption in the world.

The most recent study among schoolchildren, by the Health & Social Care Information Centre, shows that 45% of 11 to 15-year-olds admit to having ever tasted alcohol, down from 61% just 10 years ago.

Only 6% now drink weekly, down from 19%, and in the week prior to the survey just 10% had drunk alcohol. In 2003 the figure was 25%.

Hot on the heels of that research, a paper focused on Sunderland – one of those towns where drink has supposedly taken a grip on youth – revealed that the number of 15-year- olds consuming between seven and 14 units a week had fallen from 21% in 1996 to 8% in 2010. A mere 1% were drinking more than that.

Even teenage girls are letting the headline writers down. Among 15-year-old females 37% said they had taken a drink in the previous week, down from 65%.

All this supports evidence from last year’s General Lifestyle Survey, in which alcohol consumption among their older siblings, aged 16 to 24, had declined by around a third since 2005.


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