Are British Columbians drinking less? New data shows alcohol sales at 20-year low

A person's purchases are seen in a shopping cart at a government-run BC Liquor Store in Vancouver, on Friday, August 19, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

It appears that British Columbians are drinking less alcohol than they have since Y2K.

According to data from the University of Victoria-based Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, per-capita alcohol sales reached the lowest point in the 2023-24 fiscal year since it began tracking in 2001.

Last year, it says British Columbians over the age of 15 bought the equivalent of 469 standard drinks per person, a nine-per-cent decrease from the year previous—which is the largest single-year drop since data collection began.

It was the third year in a row alcohol sales decreased in the province and represents a nearly 15-per-cent drop from the boozy highs of 2020-21.

During the COVID-19 pandemic alcohol sales peaked at 550 standard drinks a year or 9.38 litres of “pure alcohol” per capita, according to the CISUR. The most recent numbers now sit at eight litres per capita.

“It is astounding to see this huge change from record highs to record lows in just a few short years,” said CISUR director Dr. Tim Naimi, in a news release accompanying the data. “It’s been kind of a perfect storm of factors that have led to people buying less alcohol.”

The institute cites several reasons as to why consumption might be going down. One is that B.C.’s population has increased, which would bring per-capita sales down when paired with a moderate decrease in sales overall, especially if new arrivals are coming from countries that drink less on average than Canadians.

The increasing cost of just about everything putting a strain on budgets is another reason British Columbians could be cutting back.

“In addition, we’ve also seen increased awareness of alcohol’s impacts on health, particularly here in Canada with the 2023 release of Canada’s Guidance on Alcohol and Health, so that may be having an impact” said Naimi—referring to the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction’s updated drinking guidelines that recommend two standard drinks or less per week to avoid alcohol-related health impacts.

According to the institute, even with the recent decreases in consumption, British Columbians drink more than the Canadian average at nine standard drinks per week, which is more than the national guideline’s “moderate risk” category of three to six.

“While this is great news for public health, there is still a long way to go,” Naimi said.

On the national level, Statistics Canada reported that in 2023-24 alcohol sales saw the largest year-over-year decline since it began tracking the data in 1949—down 3.8 per cent for a total of just under three million litres.