Big company bosses and top professionals consume the highest amounts of alcohol in the UK, says the Office of National Statistics (ONS).
According to the ONS, households classified as ‘managerial and professional’ drank more units of alcohol per week (15.1 units) than any other group.
UK broadsheet The Independent, said that chief executives of big companies and public sector organisations are ‘coping with their stressful positions by drinking the equivalent of almost three bottles of wine a week’ – just under 23 units.
According to the ONS 41% of the alcohol drunk by men in managerial and professional occupations was wine.
The recommended weekly limit of alcohol consumption is 21 units for men and 14 for women.
Average consumption in the UK stands at 13.7 units a week.
The ONS, which uses data from the 2006 General Household Survey, also said that men were more likely to drink than women, with 13% of men drinking almost every day compared to 7% of women.
The most common drinking companions of men who had drunk with other people were friends (45%) or a spouse or partner (41%). For women, this was reversed, with the majority preferred to drink with their partner (40%), than with friends (38%).
Enigmatically, the ONS highlighted that methods for calculating consumption had been updated to ‘reflect the trend towards larger measures and stronger alcoholic drinks, especially wine’ before adding that although the method of estimating alcohol consumption had changed, this ‘did not itself reflect a real change in drinking among the adult population’.
Written by Oliver Styles
