samlet årgang - Økonomisk Institut - Københavns Universitet

THE CONSUMPTION OF ALCOHOL IN THE SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES 67
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1851 1871 1891 1911 1931 1951 1971 1991
Denmark Norway Sweden
Figure 1. Alcohol consumption in the Scandinavian countries 1851-2002 (litres per
capita, 100 pct alcohol, 15 years+).
Notes: The data are calculated as litres per capita for the part of the population aged 15 years or above.
Sources: Statistical sources as listed in the data appendix.
Danish alcohol consumption has increased mainly driven by higher consumption of
beer and wine.
Of course the official data for alcohol consumption as presented here suffer from
loss of information about illegal home production (especially spirits in Norway and
Sweden) – and for the most recent part of the time period the question of border trade,
i.e. private import of alcohol. For Sweden a restrictive legislation on home production
of spirits and state control regarding the sales of alcohol were introduced around 1860-
65 and similarly for Norway, where high taxes on home production of spirits were
introduced in 1848 – and thereafter the official home production of alcohol strongly
diminished. Most likely, the level of illegal production of spirits continued during the
following century, but only little reliable information is available to make adjustments
to the official alcohol consumption statistics. One source, Nordlund (1996), concludes
from earlier surveys dealing with non-reported consumption of alcohol that this
amounts to approximately 25-30 per cent of the total quantity of alcohol consumed in
Norway. This problem is also addressed in Greenfield et al. (2003) and has to be taken
into account especially when the data for alcohol consumption span e.g. periods of
prohibition or other 'radical' alcohol policies are introduced.
Contrary to the situation in many other countries there have been no periods of prohibition
in Denmark and even though the temperance movement existed from the late