Societal Effects Of Alcohol

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Societal Effects Of Alcohol

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

The societal effects of alcohol are:

478,000 children living in the UK with a parent with an alcohol or drug problem
£3.5 billion in costs to the NHS due to alcohol use
£7.3 billion in costs to workplaces due to lost productivity caused by drinking [1]

Effects Of Alcohol On Society

The most significant effects on society caused by alcohol are:

£12.4 billion in alcohol tax revenue to the UK government per year [2]
358,000 admissions to Accident and Emergency caused directly by alcohol [3]
£1.6 billion in costs to police for alcohol-related crimes [4]
600,000 alcohol-related crimes committed per year [5]
50% of domestic homicides are as a result of alcohol abuse by the perpetrator and/ or victim [6]

Financial & Economic Effects Of Alcohol

Economic Stimulus

The economic contribution of alcohol in the UK includes:

770,000 jobs in the alcohol industry [7]
£12.4 billion in alcohol tax [1]
£800 million in advertising [8]
4p for every £1 of alcohol sold collected as alcohol excise taxes [9]
In 2021, £46 billion was spent on alcohol in the UK [10]

Lost Productivity

44 million working days are lost per year nationwide due to alcohol.

Economic Burden

The economic costs of alcohol use in the UK total £55.1 billion, comprising:

£22.6 billion in costs to individuals - including crime, private healthcare costs, care costs for families, and loss of money due to unemployment
£21.9 billion in costs to the economy due to illness, disability, or death
£5 billion in costs to social care, the criminal justice system and fire services
£7.3 billion in costs to employers due to absenteeism, lower work rates, and workplace accidents [11]
In 2021, the government spent £1.68 million on a drink driving advert called "Consequences" [12]
A deficit of £10.3 million per year in pub licensing fee admin [13]

Costs v Revenue

The costs of alcohol's effects do not outweigh the economic stimulus it brings to the country, since:

£58.48 billion is lost due to economic costs to the individual, the economy, social care and employers
£6 billion is lost in economic yield due to alcohol [14]

Considering the cross-over in sectors (e.g. social services and policing) that are associated with alcohol, it can be difficult to determine alcohol's effect on the economy through clear statistics.

Healthcare Effects Of Alcohol

Injuries & Accidents

In 2018-2019, 358,000 admissions to Accident and Emergency were directly caused by alcohol, with 23% of those being caused by unintentional injuries incurred while drunk [15].

In 2012, alcohol-related Accident and Emergency admissions cost the NHS £696 million [16].

Drink Driving

In 2021, 1,880 people were killed or seriously injured due to drunk driving [17].

In 2014, drink driving cost the UK government £754 million [18].

Impaired Decision Making

86% of those attending sexual health clinics after unprotected sex exceeded the government's binge drinking levels
19% of women attending sexual health clinics were pregnant after binge drinking [19]

Long-Term Treatment For Liver Diseases

In the UK there are:

5,000 new cases of liver cancer per year - with treatment costing £44,000 per person [20]
965 cases per 100,000 people of liver cirrhosis - with treatment costing £60,000 per person [21]

Rehab

There are no rehab facilities run by the NHS, but the NHS may either subsidise or pay completely for treatment at a third-party facility.

Mental Health And Alcohol

Psychiatric effects

Alcohol-related mental health problems cost the NHS an estimated £11.7 billion annually [22].

Used differently, this budget could alternatively fund:

278 million GP appointments (£56 for an average GP visit) [23]
31 million accident and emergency visits via ambulance (£417 for ambulance use and treatment) [24]

Death

In 2021, there were 9,641 deaths caused by alcohol-related conditions in the UK.

This is 7.4% higher than in 2020 (8,974 deaths), and 27.4% higher than in 2019 (7,565) [25].

Effects on sleep and insomnia

Header	Drinkers	Non-Drinkers
Short sleep duration	1.32% increased odds	1.32% decreased odds
Obstructive sleep apnoea	1.38% increased odds	1.38% decreased odds [26]
Insomnia	Up to 91% incidence [27]	17% incidence [28]
Time awake in the night	11%	12%
REM sleep	21% of time asleep in REM	19% of time asleep in REM [29]

Reproductive Health Effects Of Alcohol

Pregnancy

Drinking while pregnant results in:

A 12.63% increased risk of stillbirth
An 11.72% increased risk of low birth weight
A 6.80% increased risk of preterm birth [30]

Birth Defects

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) affects 1.2 to 2.4 million children [31].

The effects of FASD cost the NHS £2 billion per year and include:

Vision or hearing difficulties
Difficulties managing emotions and social skills
Kidney failure and heart defects [32]

Fertility

Female fertility falls 39% after drinking over 6 drinks per week [33].

23% of heavy drinkers have optimal sperm conditions, compared to 43% of non or low-drinkers [34].

Secondary Reproductive Effects

The risk of prostate cancer is 25% higher in men who consume over six drinks per day [35].

Societal Effects Of Alcohol Addiction

The repercussions of addiction to alcohol at a societal level include:

478,000 children living with a parent with an alcohol or drug use problem [36]
£421 million has been allocated for funding alcoholism treatment in local authorities from 2023-2025 [37]
Cost of £1.6 billion to the police force as a result of alcohol-related crimes (including drunk driving)
Cost of £1.9 billion to the NHS for alcohol-related illnesses
Cost of £289 million for welfare payments for those who cannot work due to alcoholism and related illnesses [4]
600,000 alcohol-related crimes per year
65% of suicide attempts motivated by alcohol use [5]

Employment & Work Effects Of Alcohol

The ramifications of alcohol abuse on the workplace and employment include:

£7.3 billion lost due to lost productivity (including the premature death of working-aged people, unemployment and sickness absence)
42% of people have been to work drunk or hungover (presenteeism), costing the UK economy £1.4 billion per year
An estimated 167,000 hours of work are lost every year due to alcohol use
40% of employers state alcohol abuse is a cause of low productivity
27% of employees state that workplace stress leads to drinking [38]

Alcohol Effects On Crime

Violence

64% of unprovoked violence is believed to be alcohol-related.

5% of alcohol-related violence victims experienced loss of consciousness or concussion, compared to 1% of victims of non-alcohol-related crime [39].

Domestic Violence

25-50% of domestic violence cases are as a result of alcohol intoxication.

50% of domestic homicides result from the victim and the perpetrator both being intoxicated [6].

Drink Driving

In 2020, 220 people were killed in accidents where one or more drivers were over the drink-drive limit [40].

Theft

Alcohol was a factor in:

10.8% of personal thefts
18.1% of domestic burglaries
6.7% of vehicle-related thefts [41]

Social Effects Of Alcohol

Effects Of Alcohol On Family

Alcohol can be perceived as a way for families to strengthen social bonds, as alcohol is often the catalyst for social events.

In wives with alcoholic husbands:

50% experience financial difficulties due to alcoholism
46% displace their frustration on their children
13% experience social isolation due to shame or stigma [42]

Alcohol And Relationships

Alcohol can be perceived as a signifier of special occasions that strengthen bonds in a relationship.

However, alcohol can negatively impact relationships, such as:

Being encouraged to drink more when their spouse is drinking
Increased tension in relationships caused by drinkers' unpredictable behaviour
The drinker's needs become the priority in the relationship - with the partner having to sacrifice their own needs [43]

Stigma

Examples of stigma, prejudice and stereotypes associated with alcohol include:

The "drunken Irish" stereotype - being seen as aggressive and absent from work leading to loss of employment opportunities [44]
Stigma due to low socio-economic class causes a lack of economic opportunities, leading to a 20% increased risk of alcoholism [45]
Native Americans - 39% of Native Americans report offensive comments connected to alcohol use [46]

Alcoholics also experience stigma and prejudice, such as:

The belief that alcoholics have no intention of seeking help for alcohol abuse - affects funding or availability of treatment
The belief that alcoholics are not suffering from alcoholism; instead, they cannot handle drinking. This stigmatises getting help and furthers alcoholism
Recovering alcoholics struggling to regain custody of children after years of sobriety

Indirect Costs Of Alcohol

Aspects that relate indirectly to alcohol usage at an individual level, that ultimately become issues at a societal level, include:

30% of alcoholics in the UK develop alcohol-related brain damage, increasing the burden on the NHS
Alcohol accelerating cancer - 2.5 million cancer patients in 2022 became unable to work due to cancer [47]

When Does Socially Acceptable Alcohol Use Become Detrimental To Society?

Socially acceptable uses of alcohol can develop into non-functional drinking that incurs negative effects on society:

Alcohol's intended use is to enhance creativity in artists, but leads to mental health disorders that hinder any work being produced (Vincent Van Gogh, Amy Winehouse, and Ernest Hemingway all suffered from comorbid alcoholism and depression) [48]
Alcohol's intended use is to ease social interactions, but becomes negative when alcohol causes inappropriate or aggressive behaviour
Alcohol at weddings is considered a socially acceptable way to celebrate the bride and groom's union. However, 14% of married couples say drunk guests were one of the main stressors at their wedding [49]
Alcohol on holiday is considered a socially acceptable way to relax. However, British tourists have developed a reputation abroad for public drunkenness, leading to calls for bans or specific zones for British tourists [50]

Key Metrics In Alcohol Drinking vs Non-Alcohol-Drinking Populations

Header	United Kingdom	Saudi Arabia
Is it legal to drink alcohol?	Yes	No
Domestic abuse statistics	1.5 million incidents in 2022 [51]	4 million incidents in 2022 [52]
Drink driving statistics	220 deaths via drunk driving in 2020 [53]	No reported deaths via drunk driving
Liver related diseases	2,777 total cases of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease [54]	413,700 total cases of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease [55]
Violent crime statistics	Rate at 1.00	Rate at 0.80
Police funding for alcohol-related crime	£1.6 billion in funding for alcohol-related crimes [4]	No declared police funding for alcohol-related crime
Punishment for alcohol-related crimes	Sobriety tags Points on license/driving bans Prison sentences	Fines Prison sentences Deportation for visitors [56]

References

[1] NHS England. “NHS Long Term Plan Will Help Problem Drinkers and Smokers.” NHS England, 5 Jan. 2019. “Alcohol-related harm is estimated to cost the NHS in England £3.5 billion every year.”
[2] Clark, D. “UK HMRC Alcohol Duty Receipts 2019 | Statista.” Statista, Statista, 2019. “In 2023/24, tax receipts from alcohol duties in the United Kingdom amounted to approximately 12.6 billion British pounds, compared with 12.4 billion in the previous year.”
[3] NHS Digital. “Part 1: Alcohol-Related Hospital Admissions.” NHS Digital, 4 Feb. 2020. “In 2018/19 there were 358 thousand estimated admissions where the main reason for admission to hospital was attributable to alcohol (narrow measure).”
[4] Snowdon, Christopher. "ALCOHOL and the PUBLIC PURSE Do Drinkers Pay Their Way?" 2015. “Leaving a total cost to the police and criminal justice system of £1.6 billion.”
[5] Faculty of Public Health of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom. "Alcohol and Violence: Briefing Statement." "An estimated 600,000 incidents of alcohol-related violence occur each year."
[6] Alcohol Health Alliance UK. "'It's everywhere' - alcoholic's public face and private harm: The Report of the Commission on Alcohol Harm." Sept. 2020. " A 2016 Home Office review of domestic homicides found that substance use was mentioned as a factor in just over half of all reviews into intimate partner homicides."
[7] Institute of Alcohol Studies UK. "Factsheet: The Alcohol Industry." 20 Jan. 2018. "IAS has estimated that the alcohol industry is responsible for 770,000 UK jobs."
[8] Institute of Alcohol Studies UK. "Factsheet: Marketing and Alcohol." 20 Jan. 2017. " It is estimated that each year more than £800 million is spent on advertising alcoholic beverages in the UK."
[9] HMRC UK. "The HMRC Alcohol Strategy Modernising Alcohol Taxes to Tackle Fraud and Reduce Burdens on Alcohol Businesses Contents." March 2016. “Excise duty costs in the region of 0.4p for every £1 collected in revenue, making it one of the most efficient taxes in the UK to administer.”
[10] Kadiri, Habib. “The Alcohol Industry.” IAS. “The Institute of Alcohol Studies has estimated that the production and sale of alcohol was worth £46 billion to the UK economy.”
[11] Institute of Alcohol Studies. "Briefing: The Costs of Alcohol to Society." March 2023. "£7.3 billion of costs to employers due to lost productivity, absenteeism and accidents."
[12] GOV UK. “Drink Driving: The Hidden Cost of a Humble Pint.” GOV UK. “The latest £1.68 million THINK! campaign will see the “Consequences” drink drive television and radio adverts being aired over the Spring as well as online activity.”
[13] Parliament UK. “House of Lords - the Licensing Act 2003: Post-Legislative Scrutiny - Select Committee on the Licensing Act 2003.” Parliament UK, 2016. Accessed 14 Feb. 2025. “The LGA showed that while the annual net deficit across all licensing authorities in England and Wales was around £10.3 million.”
[14] GOV UK. "The Government's Alcohol Strategy." March 2012.
[15] NHS Digital. “Part 1: Alcohol-Related Hospital Admissions.” NHS Digital, 4 Feb. 2020. “23% were for unintentional injuries.”
[16] Institute of Alcohol Studies. "Alcohol's Impact on Emergency Services." Oct. 2015. "Alcohol attributable A&E attendances, which cost the NHS £696 million."
[17] Hutcheon, Ronnie. “Fatal Road Accidents Statistics.” Fatal Accident Claims, 28 Dec. 2023. “The central estimate for killed or seriously injured drink-drive casualties in 2021 is 1,880.”
[18] Institute of Alcohol Studies. "Factsheet: Drink-driving." 20 Aug. 2016. "The cost of drink-driving accidents with casualties across the UK, where the driver was found to be above the 80mg limit, was £754 million in 2014."
[19] Standerwick, K, et al. “Binge Drinking, Sexual Behaviour and Sexually Transmitted Infection in the UK.” International Journal of STD & AIDS, vol. 18, no. 12, Dec. 2007, pp. 810–813. “Of the women, 19% reported an unwanted pregnancy.”
[20] Statista. “Liver Cancer by Age & Gender in England 2020.” Statista. “There were over 5.5 thousand registrations of newly diagnosed liver cancer.”
[21] Statista. “Liver Cirrhosis due to Alcohol Use in the UK 2000-2017, by Gender.” Statista. “Approximately 603 men and 362 women per 100,000 population the United Kingdom suffered from liver cirrhosis or another chronic liver disease due to alcohol use.”
[22] Institute of Alcohol Studies. "Alcohol and Mental Health: Policy and practice in England." April 2018.
[23] The Kings Fund. “NHS: Key Facts and Figures.” The King’s Fund, 25 June 2024. “A recent study estimated that in 2022/23 the average 10-minute face-to-face GP consultation costs £56.”
[24] The Kings Fund. “NHS: Key Facts and Figures.” The King’s Fund, 25 June 2024. “In 2022/23, the estimated average cost of a patient taken to A&E by ambulance was £417.”
[25] Breen, Paul, and Asim Butt. “Alcohol-Specific Deaths in the UK - Office for National Statistics.” ONS GOV UK, 8 Dec. 2022. “The number recorded in 2021 was 7.4% higher than in 2020 (8,974 deaths; 14.0 per 100,000) and 27.4% higher than in 2019 (7,565 deaths; 11.8 per 100,000).”
[26] Zheng, Dandan, et al. “Alcohol Consumption and Sleep Quality: A Community-Based Study.” Public Health Nutrition, vol. 24, no. 15, 13 Nov. 2020, pp. 1–23. “A similar association was observed when alcohol consumption in 2012 was used as exposure. Alcohol was associated with higher odds of having short sleep duration (adjusted odds ratio for heavy- vs. non-drinkers = 1.32; 95% confidence interval: 1.09-1.57), and snoring (adjusted odds ratio for heavy- vs. non-drinkers: 1.38; 95% confidence interval: 1.22-1.57).”
[27] Brower, Kirk J., and Brian E. Perron. “Prevalence and Correlates of Withdrawal-Related Insomnia among Adults with Alcohol Dependence: Results from a National Survey.” American Journal on Addictions, vol. 19, no. 3, May 2010, pp. 238–244. Accessed 17 Sept. 2019. “Rates of insomnia in clinical samples of alcohol-dependent patients range from 36% to 91%.”
[28] Silva-Fonseca, V.A. da, et al. “Binge Drinking and Insomnia in Students from Health Sciences at One University in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.” Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research, vol. 54, no. 8, 2021. Accessed 30 Apr. 2022. “Table 1.”
[29] Colrain, Ian M., et al. “Alcohol and the Sleeping Brain.” Handbook of Clinical Neurology, vol. 125, no. 125, 2014, pp. 415–431. “Figure 2.”
[30] Addila, Alemu Earsido, et al. “The Effects of Maternal Alcohol Consumption during Pregnancy on Adverse Fetal Outcomes among Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Care at Public Health Facilities in Gondar Town, Northwest Ethiopia: A Prospective Cohort Study.” Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy, vol. 16, no. 1, 26 Aug. 2021. “Hazardous alcohol consumption during pregnancy was also significantly associated with preterm birth (ARR = 2.06; 95% CI: 1.21, 3.52). The adjusted PAR of low birth weight related to non-hazardous and hazardous alcohol drinking during pregnancy was 11.72 and 8.44%, respectively. The adjusted PAR of hazardous alcohol consumption was 6.80% for preterm.”
[31] McCarthy, Robyn, et al. “Prevalence of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder in Greater Manchester, UK: An Active Case Ascertainment Study.” Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, vol. 45, no. 11, 29 Sept. 2021.
[32] Parliamentary Committees UK. "Written Evidence: Health and Social Care Committee." 6 Feb. 2024. "Using older data from the US, the BMA cite an estimated annual cost of FASD to the United Kingdom of £2 billion.”[6] This is likely a conservative figure as it was based on a prevalence of 1%. A lot of this comes from lost productivity."
[33] Anwar, Mohammad Yaser, et al. “The Association between Alcohol Intake and Fecundability during Menstrual Cycle Phases.” Human Reproduction, vol. 36, no. 9, 8 June 2021, pp. 2538–2548. “And heavy drinking (>6 drinks/week, FOR = 0.51, CI: 0.29, 0.89) were associated with a reduction in fecundability, compared to non-drinkers. For the follicular phase, heavy drinking in the ovulatory sub-phase.”
[34] Jorgensen, Niels, et al. "Human semen quality in the new millennium: a prospective cross-sectional population-based study of 4867 men." BMJ Open, 2 July 2012. "Only 23% of men from the general population had the optimal sperm concentrations of more than 40 million/ml and more than 9% normal forms, in comparison to 42% of the fertile men."
[35] Watters, J. L., et al. “Alcoholic Beverages and Prostate Cancer in a Prospective US Cohort Study.” American Journal of Epidemiology, vol. 172, no. 7, 2 Sept. 2010, pp. 773–780. Accessed 4 Jan. 2022. “Risk of nonadvanced prostate cancer was 25% higher for men consuming ≥6 drinks daily.”
[36] Children's Commissioner. "Trends in childhood vulnerability: vulnerability technical report 1." July 2019.
[37] Department of Health and Social Care. “£421 Million to Boost Drug and Alcohol Treatment across England.” GOV UK, 16 Feb. 2023. “Local authorities across England will benefit from an extra £421 million government funding through to 2025 to improve drug and alcohol addiction treatment and recovery.”
[38] British Safety Council. “Alcohol and the Workplace – the Hidden Threat to Employee Wellbeing.” British Safety Council. “Lost productivity due to alcohol use costs the UK economy more than £7 billion annually, and an estimated 167,000 working years are lost to alcohol every year ... 40 per cent of employers mention alcohol as a significant cause of low productivity ... 27 per cent of employees reported that workplace stress makes them drink more.”
[39] Office for National Statistics. “Violent Crime and Sexual Offences - Alcohol-Related Violence - Office for National Statistics.” ONS GOV UK, 12 Feb. 2015. “Or to have suffered concussion or loss of consciousness (5%, compared with 1% of victims in non alcohol-related incidents) as a result of the incident.”
[40] Department for Transport. “Reported Road Casualties in Great Britain, Final Estimates Involving Illegal Alcohol Levels: 2020.” GOV UK, 28 July 2022. “Final estimates for 2020 show that between 200 and 240 people were killed in collisions in Great Britain where at least one driver was over the drink-drive limit, with a central estimate of 220 deaths.”
[41] ONS UK. “Data on Alcohol Related Incidents, Years Ending March 2011 to March 2017, Crime Survey for England and Wales - Office for National Statistics.” ONS GOV UK, 3 Dec. 2018. "Download."
[42] Sharma, Nitasha, et al. “Living with an Alcoholic Partner: Problems Faced and Coping Strategies Used by Wives of Alcoholic Clients.” Industrial Psychiatry Journal, vol. 25, no. 1, 2016, pp. 65–71. “Table 2.”
[43] Leonard, Kenneth E, and Linda J Roberts. “Alcohol in the Early Years of Marriage.” Alcohol Health and Research World, vol. 20, no. 3, 2024, p. 192. “With marriage, a “drinking partnership” is molded from the separate premarital drinking habits of each partner. Together, couples establish norms about such things as whether alcohol is served with meals, whether the refrigerator or alcohol cabinet is kept stocked, whether guests are offered drinks, and so on. Drinking partnerships may vary.”
[44] Mauger, Alice. “A Great Race of Drinkers? Irish Interpretations of Alcoholism and Drinking Stereotypes, 1945–1975.” Medical History, vol. 65, no. 1, 1 Jan. 2021, pp. 70–89. “That reinforced the enduring “drunken Irish” stereotype, these findings seemed to suggest that the Irish, as a race, had an especially remarkable relationship with drink.”
[45] Cerdá, Magdalena, et al. “The Relationship between Neighborhood Poverty and Alcohol Use: Estimation by Marginal Structural Models.” Epidemiology, vol. 21, no. 4, July 2010, pp. 482–489. “That a difference of 20% in the average proportion of neighborhood residents living in poverty over the course of the study was associated with a 10% higher odds of binging, and with a 9% increase in the number of drinks consumed per week.”
[46] Robbins, Rockey, et al. “A Study of the Effectiveness of the Gifts of the Seven Directions Alcohol Prevention Model for Native Americans: Culturally Sustaining Education for Native American Adolescents.” Contemporary Educational Psychology, vol. 47, Oct. 2016, pp. 24–31. Accessed 11 Apr. 2021. “Wallace et al. (2009) surveyed Native American students and found that 39% had tried more than just a few sips of alcohol by the end of the 8th grade; 72% by the end of the 12th grade. Underage alcohol use threatens the development of young people through alterations in brain development and potential addiction. Early alcohol use is also associated with academic problems, delinquency, unprotected sexual activity, increased suicide and homicide, car accidents.”
[47] CDC. “Alcohol and Cancer.” CDC US, 8 May 2024. “More than 522,000 alcohol-associated cancers occurred in the United States in 2021, including more than 155,000 among men and 367,000 among women.”
[48] Cambridge Rivers. “Alcohol, Art, and the Artist.” Cam Rivers Publishing. “Seemingly more often than not, famous and notable artists and writers have been caught in the grasps of alcoholism. Some claimed the enhanced ability of their creative process or made alcohol the focus of their work, whilst some relied on alcohol just to keep them going.”
[49] Instant Print. “Online Business Card Printing and Flyer Printing.” Instant Print, May 2019. Accessed 14 Feb. 2025. “Guests also seemed to be a huge stress point. From getting drunk (14%) to rows at the reception (6%), there’s no surprise that one in ten respondents wished they’d just eloped instead.”
[50] Homa Khaleeli. “From Barcelona to Malia: How Brits on Holiday Have Made Themselves Unwelcome.” The Guardian, The Guardian, 17 Jan. 2017. “By 2013, the situation was bad enough for the mayor to suggest creating an “out-of-town” area for foreign holidaymakers, quickly dubbed a “tourist ghetto”.”
[51] Office for National Statistics. “Domestic Abuse Prevalence and Trends, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics.” ONS GOV UK, 25 Nov. 2022. “The police recorded 1,500,369 domestic abuse-related incidents and crimes in England and Wales in the year ending March 2022.”
[52] Wali, R., et al. “Prevalence and Risk Factors of Domestic Violence in Women Attending the National Guard Primary Health Care Centers in the Western Region, Saudi Arabia, 2018.” BMC Public Health, vol. 20, no. 1, 17 Feb. 2020. “The reality, based on the current and previous studies, is that at least one-third of Saudi women is a victim of abuse.”
[53] Department for Transport. “Reported Road Casualties in Great Britain, Final Estimates Involving Illegal Alcohol Levels: 2020.” GOV UK, 28 July 2022. “Killed in collisions in Great Britain where at least one driver was over the drink-drive limit, with a central estimate of 220 deaths.”
[54] GOV UK. “Liver Disease Profiles, January 2022 Update.” GOV UK, 2022. “The rate of hospital admissions from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease reduced to 3.7 per 100,000 population, a count of 2,085, which is significantly lower than the rate in previous year (4.9 per 100,000 population, a count of 2,777.”
[55] Razavi, Homie, et al. “Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Burden – Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, 2017–2030.” Saudi Journal of Gastroenterology, vol. 24, no. 4, 2018, p. 211. “Table 1.”
[56] GOV UK. “Safety and Security - Saudi Arabia Travel Advice.” GOV UK. “Do not bring alcohol into Saudi Arabia or arrive under the influence of alcohol. It is illegal to drink alcohol or be drunk in public. Police have arrested British nationals for disorderly or offensive behaviour when drinking. You can face severe penalties, including prison, for brewing, possessing or selling alcohol.”

About the author

Harriet Garfoot

Harriet Garfoot BA, MA has an Undergraduate degree in Education Studies and English, and a Master's degree in English Literature, from Bishop Grosseteste University. Harriet writes on stress & mental health, and is a member of the Burney Society. Content reviewed by Laura Morris (Clinical Lead).

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Last Updated: February 14, 2025