Do the Czechs have a drinking problem?
New Year's Eve always reminds you that a lot of us like a good drink. As I walked through Prague's Old Town Square this New Year's, the popping of corks and the crackle of broken glass mixed with cheers in Czech, English, German and Italian. Prague's historic centre was filled with revellers from all over Europe, so it was not only the Czechs who were drinking. But do the Czechs in particular have a problem with alcohol consumption, as statistics suggest?
It is no news that the Czechs have a reputation for drinking a lot, even by European standards. Beer is the national favourite, and Czechs are the biggest beer consumers in the world, guzzling down about 160 litres of it per capita annually.
Let's put that figure in historic context. In 1936 Czechs drank around 65 litres of beer per capita per year, and in 1970 the figure was 154 litres, closer to what it is now. In terms of pure alcohol, Czechs consume about 10 litres of it each year; in 1936 the figure was about 3 and a half litres, and in 1970 it was 8.
Since the Velvet Revolution, consumption of alcohol in the Czech Republic has increased by 10 per cent. For the current Czech government these figures are a cause for concern, and it is embarking on a project called "Health for All in the 21st Century," which among other things aims to decrease the average annual consumption of pure alcohol to 6 litres by 2015.
Drinking is an integral part of Czech culture, as it is in many other European societies. But do the Czechs really have a drinking problem? Indeed, the Czechs are not the continent's only big drinkers. Statistics from recent years show that the Hungarians and Slovenes consume more litres of pure alcohol per year than the Czechs do.
And in West Europe, the French, Irish and Portuguese are also bigger drinkers, while the Czechs drink just a little more than the Austrians and the Germans. One nation that has in recent years topped the European drinking league is Luxembourg: this country has one of the highest levels of alcohol consumption, and also the world's highest per capita income.
Indeed, with an increase in average incomes in the Czech Republic in the last decade, there has also been a change in the way that alcohol is consumed. Czechs are drinking more and they're drinking better quality alcoholic beverages. Furthermore, there has been a particular increase in alcohol consumption among women.
Before 1989 it was waiters, workers in assembly plants, health workers and the personnel of foreign firms that were particularly prone to excessive alcohol consumption. According to Karel Nespor, a doctor specialising in addiction at the Psychiatric Hospital in Bohnice, these days the groups particularly at risk also include businesspeople and managers. Stress and the easy availability of alcohol are among the chief contributing risk factors.
But Czechs who like a glass or two find comfort in a study by the World Health Organisation that shows that people who drink two glasses of wine a day on average live longer. As wine consumption has also been increasing in the Czech Republic in recent years, the Czech government may find it more difficult to entice people into reducing consumption to just two glasses.
