Number of alcohol drinkers in Britain rises, official figures reveal

The number of people drinking alcohol in Britain has risen, official figures have revealed.

An estimated 29.2 million adults drank booze in 2017, according to a survey by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

This compared to 29 million adults who reported drinking alcohol in 2016.

The percentage of drinkers in Britain increased slightly from 56.9% in 2016 to 57% last year, but the figure remains below 2005, when 64.1% of adults said they consumed alcohol.

It comes as Scotland becomes the first county in the world to introduce a minimum unit price for alcohol in a bid to cut booze-related deaths.

Nearly one in 10 adults in Britain (9.6%) reported drinking alcohol at least five days a week in 2017, the equivalent of 4.9 million people.

Meanwhile, more than a fifth of adults (20.4%) said they were teetotal - around 10.4 million people.

The ONS said young people aged 16 to 24 were less likely to drink than any other adult age group in 2017.

Nearly half (47.9%) of people aged 16 to 24 drank alcohol in the week before they were surveyed, compared to 64.6% of adults aged 45 to 64.

People working in high-earning managerial or professional jobs were most likely to have drunk alcohol in the past week, the ONS found.

Four in five (78.9%) adults with salaries of at least £40,000 said they drank booze in the previous week, compared to 46.5% of people with earnings below £10,000.

England had the highest proportion of adults who said they drank alcohol (57.8%), followed by Scotland (53.5%) and Wales (50%).

The ONS also measured binge drinking across Britain, where men consumed more than eight units of alcohol on their heaviest drinking day and women exceeded six units.

In England, the highest proportion of drinkers who "binged" was in the North West (33.3%), compared to 18.6% in the South East.