Netherlands National Drug Monitor - Research and Documentation ...

• In 2007 the Netherlands scored in the higher echelons for the measure ‘having
consumed alcohol at least 40 times in my entire life’.
• The Netherlands was exceeded only by Austria in 2007 for the measure ‘having
consumed alcohol at least ten times in the month prior to the survey’.
• For the measure ‘drunkenness’, Dutch school-goers scored considerably less highly.
Only 2% reported having been drunk at least twenty times in their lives.
• Between 2003 and 2007, the percentage of school-goers that had drunk alcohol on
40 or more occasions declined in the Netherlands; likewise there was a decline in the
percentage that had been drunk 20 times or more in their lives. A similar drop took
place in this period for the U.K., Belgium, Ireland, Finland, Sweden and Norway.
Table 7.6 Alcohol use and drunkenness among school-goers aged 15 and 16 in a number of EU
member states, Norway and the US. Survey years 1999, 2003 and 2007
Country
Consumption:
40 times or more in
lifetime
Consumption:
10 times or more in past
month
Intoxication:
20 times or more in
lifetime
1999 2003 2007 1999 2003 2007 1999 2003 2007
Austria - 48% 52% - 21% 30% - 21% 9%
Denmark I 59% 50% 49% 18% 13% 12% 41% 36% 17%
Germany II - 37% 41% - 11% 18% - 12% 5%
The Netherlands 37% 45% 40% 20% 25% 24% 8% 6% 2%
U.K. 47% 43% 39% 16% 17% 14% 29% 27% 13%
Belgium III - 36% 34% - 20% 17% - 7% 1%
France 20% 22% 30% 8% 7% 13% 4% 3% 4%
Greece 42% 35% 28% 13% 13% 11% 4% 3% 2%
Ireland 40% 39% 23% 16% 16% 10% 25% 30% 9%
Italy 17% 24% 23% 7% 12% 13% 2% 5% 3%
Portugal 15% 14% 21% 6% 7% 13% 4% 3% 1%
Finland 20% 20% 16% 1% 2% 1% 28% 26% 7%
Sweden 19% 17% 14% 2% 1% 1% 19% 17% 4%
Norway 16% 15% 11% 3% 3% 1% 16% 14% 4%
US 16% 12% 11% 5% 4% 5% 11% 7% 7%
Percentage of school-goers. - = not measured. The US did not participate in ESPAD, but conducted comparable
research. I. The data for Denmark are less suited to comparison. II. Germany in 2007 for 7 federal
states only. III. Belgium in 2007 only for Flanders Source: ESPAD.
A study which compared the reported availability and use of alcohol among schoolgoers
aged between 14 and 17 in the Netherlands and France found the following
(Knibbe et al., 2005; Knibbe et al., 2007):
• Dutch juveniles find it easier to procure alcohol than their French peers; 72% of the
Dutch and 59% of the French juveniles find it easy to procure alcohol.
7 Alcohol
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