Drinking in Italy
Drinking in Italy
Alarm bells sounded in the Italian popular press last week when statistics released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) showed that Italians have their first drink at 11-12 years of age – the youngest age in Europe, where the average is at 14 and a half.
Comparisons with the rest of Europe showed that in 1999 only 3% of Greek youngsters had drunk three times or more over the course of 30 days compared to 30% of Danish young people. 16% of 16 year olds in Britain drank alcohol 10 times in the last 30 days and the average across the EU is 8%.
But a closer look at the statistics reveals that there is not such a case for alarm about alcohol consumption in Italy. Northern European drinking habits are characterised by low daily consumption but frequent intoxication, typical of binge drinking, whereas in Italy we drink more frequently, but less. Italian teens, for example, are very intolerant of their peers who become drunk and it’s a fast track to being excluded from a group … they think it’s stupid and unacceptable.
Italian adults are even more intolerant with people with drinking habits that are considered outside the norm – such as drinking between meals and not during them. Both French and Italian children commonly grow up with wine on the table. In the last ten years drinking aperitifs or liqueurs has become very popular among Italian adolescents aged 14 to 17, especially among girls, which is a significant culture change as women in Italy tend not to drink.
These latest figures also show that Italians have drastically reduced the quantity of alcohol consumption per head whereas it has increased in most other countries. We are drinking less than ever with annual consumption per head standing at 50 litres per person in 2002, compared to 104 litres 1975, and a 27.2% of Italians don’t drink at all.